比尔·盖茨：软件凭什么卖钱？｜改变计算机的人 No.14 | Bill Gates: Why Should Anyone Pay for Software?

1976 年，20 岁的比尔·盖茨写了一封公开信，骂白拿他软件的爱好者是小偷。那时候软件还是个新物种，电脑的赠品，没人觉得该为它付钱。后来，DOS、Windows、Office 让为软件付钱成了习惯，养出了世界上最大的一批公司。今天，AI 自己会写代码了——软件公司，还有未来吗？「改变计算机的人」第十四期，比尔·盖茨。下一期：史蒂夫·乔布斯。 主要史料：盖茨《致爱好者的公开信》（1976-02-03）与《第二封、也是最后一封信》（1976-04）原件；1993 年史密森尼博物馆盖茨口述访谈；Gates Notes（2023-03-21、2025-04-02）；IBM 1969 年软件解绑与 CHM 展区；美国诉微软案事实认定（1999）；《Dr. Dobb's Journal》1976 年 5 月号；Felsenstein 2008 年计算机历史博物馆口述史；SCP 与微软 86-DOS 许可协议（1981）；CHM 博客《Fifty Years of the Personal Computer Operating System》；1997 年 Macworld 波士顿现场转写。完整来源见长文。 图片：Wikimedia Commons（公有领域 / CC 授权，署名见片尾）；Gates Notes 博客截图与 1997 年 Macworld 波士顿主题演讲录像截图（© Apple）作评论引用；部分场景画面由 AI 生成，非历史影像。 In February 1976, 20-year-old Bill Gates wrote an angry letter to computer hobbyists: "Most of you steal your software." Back then software was a new species, a free add-on that came with the machine, and nobody thought of paying for it. This episode follows how that changed: Gates and Paul Allen promising MITS a BASIC for the Altair before writing a single line, squeezing an interpreter into 4K of memory on a borrowed PDP-10, a paper tape copied and handed out at the Homebrew Computer Club, Li-Chen Wang's "copyleft, all wrongs reserved", the IBM PC deal that went to a non-exclusive DOS license, and Windows and Office turning paying for software into a habit: today the world spends over a trillion dollars a year on it. Fifty years later, AI writes a growing share of the world's code, and Gates himself put that 1975 BASIC online for anyone to read. Do software companies still have a future? Episode 14 of "The People Who Changed Computing". Narrated in Mandarin, Chinese subtitles. Next: Steve Jobs. 章节 Chapters 00:00 引子 00:58 他是谁 01:30 新物种 04:13 一封信 05:36 软件公司 08:23 AI 会写代码以后 09:20 交棒