The story of the Hackers (v) the creator of the "Evil Empire"

Bill Gates, full name William Henrigates III, is an outlier in early hacking. Today, he is one of the world's most well-known entrepreneurs and philanthropists, and is regarded as a generation of outstanding role models, the information age of the idol, the hero of knowledge representatives.

If the computing power is free

In 1986, Watts gave a speech to graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley, referring to his code of conduct: "My rule of life is a simple formula: the product of h= three F, which is happiness (happiness)) equals food, Fun interest and friends (friend). ”

This statement clearly says a lot of hackers, otherwise we can't explain why hackers tend to spend a lot of personal time on open source or free software projects. Of course, not all hackers are like this, for example, Bill Gates doesn't hide his passion for business software and money.

As early as 1972, when Bill Gates was only a 16-year-old, he realized that the 8008 that Intel had just introduced could change. He and the 19-year-old Paul Allen together set up the "Trof-o-data" Company, with 8008 to handle traffic flow data. Although the company died because of sales problems, he still believes that integrated circuits will change the computer and then change the world. 1974, the opportunity has finally come.

Many articles have mentioned the "Altair 8800" that looks weird on the cover of Mass electronics in January 1975, but few people can describe the impact it has on gates. Gates himself used "panic" to describe the feeling at the time: "People will soon write the real software for this chip, but not our share!" ”

Perhaps, at the time, Gates and Alan felt a bit of despair. They believe that the Altair 8800 will bring a rapid and drastic change that will allow computers to be rapidly miniaturized, to allow computing power to reach almost free and to the extent that a large number of software developers benefit from it, allowing a new market to rise.

From hackers to entrepreneurs

There are many differences between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, but they are surprisingly similar in some ways. Steve Jobs, who imposing about technology, is fascinated by the details of the design, while Gates is always like a weak high school student, a tech fan, focused only on the functionality of the software. Both have a keen sense of business acumen and the will to do whatever they want for their ideals.

On February 3, 1976, Gates published the famous letter to computer enthusiasts. He denounced the popular software-sharing behavior as "theft", saying that it was natural for software developers to get economic returns, just as hardware needed to pay for purchases.

This letter proves that in the hacker's shell, Gates has an entrepreneur's heart. Interest and money are not contradictory, may not be able to discharge a priority. Even after Microsoft has become a big company worth $6 billion, Gates is happy to solve technical problems by himself, and even after he has retired from the position of CEO, he still has to be Microsoft's Chief Software Architect.

He likes to see computers everywhere in the world, like to use software to solve problems. He says computers make the world faster, and this problem can only be solved by computers. This is entirely a hacker's idea, right.

The story of the Hackers (v) the creator of the "Evil Empire"