Re:Hidden messages in Amiga games (2017)
by segfaultbuserr on Sunday August 18, 2019 @10:00AM
(#20730164)
> Also, I think the merging started way earlier than Linux.
Great historical review. Yes, it's not black-and-white, and the continuity between minicomputers and microcomputers always exist.
But IMHO, generation also plays a factor. On one hand, the Homebrew Computer Club was having its heyday in the mid-70s, on the other hand, a new generation of hackers just started to programming the Apple ][ or the C64 in the early-to-mid 80s, and many would become the later demoscener, offensive hackers, shareware writers, or famed developers. This part of history is also an essential part of the hacker culture as seen today, and it was merged into the mainstream hacking in the 90s.
I thought it was fairly popular in the early times, at the Homebrew computer club.
I think it was more that, traditionally, universities did research using computers and personnel paid for by society. Software is a secondary outcome, so it need not bring in money.
At some time, companies entered the market that had to pay for their computer time and personnel, and wanted to make money.
Hobbyists followed suit, some of them only because buying computer hardware was extremely expensive.
If paying for software always was the norm for hobbyists, Bill Gates wouldn’t have needed to write his open letter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists)
Also, I think the merging started way earlier than Linux. For example, Jim Warren, in 1976, wrote:
”There is a viable alternative to the problems raised by Bill Gates in his irate letter to computer hobbyists concerning "ripping off" software. When software is free, or so inexpensive that it's easier to pay for it than to duplicate it, then it won't be "stolen"”
(That was in an article about TinyBasic, the project that invented the word copyleft; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft#History)