Personal Computers: The Altair 8800 and the Dawn of a Revolution

The Altair 8800 is why we have computers in most homes today. It
was initially designed for hobbyists. But a few visionaries saw
massive potential in this strange little machine—and worked hard
to make others see it too. What they created led to so much more
than anyone could have ever imagined. Forrest Mims tells us how
his co-founder, Ed Roberts, planned to save their struggling
electronics company. His idea? A microcomputer made for
hobbyists. That computer led to a fateful phone call from Bill
Gates and Paul Allen. Dan Sokol and Lee Felsenstein recall the
unveiling of the Altair 8800 at the Homebrew Computer Club, and
how it sparked Steve Wozniak’s eureka moment for the Apple I. We
then hear from John Markoff about an infamous software heist that
set the stage for the debate about whether code should be
proprietary. And finally, Limor Fried reflects on how this story
continues to influence today’s open source hardware movement.


 If you want to read up on some of our research on personal
computers, you can check out all our bonus material over at
redhat.com/commandlineheroes. You’ll find extra content for every
episode. Follow along with the episode transcript .