Microsoft’s original source code

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Altair BASIC source release & format

  • The code is only available as a ~100 MB high‑resolution scanned PDF of a 4 KB program, which many find ironic and impractical.
  • Several commenters wish it had been posted as plain text or on GitHub; there is skepticism that Microsoft will do that officially.
  • A note that constants are in octal; the visible printout is “Version 3.0” dated September 1975, with older printouts known elsewhere.

Reconstructing and using the code

  • People have already tried OCR (e.g., Tesseract/OCRmyPDF) with mixed results; an imperfect but much smaller text version has been posted on GitHub.
  • Others suggest better OCR tools and invite pull requests to clean up the transcription.
  • There’s interest in emulating or rebuilding the interpreter so it can be run directly today.

Origin story of Microsoft and Altair BASIC

  • The romantic “dumpster‑diving BASIC listing” story is challenged: linked sources mention salvaging PDP‑10 OS listings, not BASIC itself.
  • Consensus: Gates and Allen studied other systems’ listings, wrote an 8080 emulator on a PDP‑10, then implemented their own BASIC on top.
  • The emulator and interpreter were developed without access to a real Altair; first demonstration involved toggling in a bootstrap and loading BASIC from paper tape.
  • Some see the initial “we have BASIC” claim to MITS as “fake it then immediately make it”, distinct from modern long‑running vaporware.

Technical achievement and BASIC lineage

  • Multiple comments stress how hard it was to fit a usable BASIC with floating point, editor, and I/O into 4–8 KB, contrasting that with the relative ease of writing an 8080 CPU emulator.
  • Monte Davidoff’s floating‑point work is called out; Wozniak’s integer‑only Apple BASIC is contrasted with Microsoft’s FP variants.
  • Altair BASIC is traced forward to later Microsoft BASICs, GW‑BASIC, and auto‑translated 8086 versions.

Microsoft, openness, and business tactics

  • The “Open Letter to Hobbyists” and later licensing strategy are debated: some argue Gates ultimately “won” the argument about getting paid for software; others point to today’s thriving open ecosystems as a counterexample.
  • Long threads revisit CP/M vs MS‑DOS, the IBM deal, DR‑DOS compatibility shenanigans, Netscape/IE, and whether Microsoft’s dominance stemmed more from product‑market fit or anti‑competitive behavior.
  • Opinions on Microsoft’s innovation vary widely: from “mostly copied, not innovative” to praise for deep technical chops in the early era.

Sentiment about Gates and legacy

  • Many acknowledge Gates and Allen as serious early hackers while criticizing later monopoly behavior and “ladder‑pulling”.
  • Gates’ philanthropy generates polarized reactions: some see it as redemptive, others as reputation laundering with a tiny fraction of accumulated wealth.
  • Several commenters reflect nostalgically on the 70s–90s PC era versus today’s MBA‑driven, platform‑monetization culture.

Website design & UX

  • The Gates Notes page draws strong reactions: some like the retro‑themed, animated design; many find it heavy, distracting, unreadable, and hostile to reader mode or low‑power devices.
  • There are jokes that shipping a 4 KB BASIC as a 100 MB PDF via a JS‑heavy site is the perfect modern Microsoft aesthetic.