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50 years ago, a 20-year-old Bill Gates called hobbyists "thieves" for sharing software
This week marks the 50th anniversary of Bill Gates' infamous "Open Letter to Hobbyists," in which the 20-year-old accused early computer enthusiasts of theft for copying his BASIC interpreter. "Most of you steal your software,
Microsoft has released the source code for the BASIC version it developed in 1976 for the MOS 6502 processor, a central component of many early home computers, The Register reports. As far back as 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen developed Microsoft’s first product: BASIC for the Altair 8800 with the Intel 8080 processor.