> From: Matthew Woodcraft <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> Don Dailey wrote:
> > A few years later I was pointed to a site where I could download that
> > and just about any commercial chess program. We are talking several
> > decades ago, I didn't bookmark the site or use it myself and I have no
> > idea if it's still there.
>
> It seems to me that only a very small number of people would have been
> in a position to download anything, several decades ago. What kind of
> 'site' was it, anyway? Doubtless not a web site!
Indeed, there were no web sites before 1991, but we did use ftp and gopher and
wais and other tools whose names have since been forgotten. It was hard to get
full "internet access" in the 80s, but a lot of us called BBS systems and
swapped news, pictures, and all sorts of other stuff, over a 9600 or 58k
modem. There were also the hand-to-hand transfers of floppies, cassette tapes,
and other storage media. Byte magazine even attempted a method of printing
software as graphics on their pages for a while, IIRC.
I love free software, but only if the authors intend it to be distributed that
way. I believe authors deserve to be compensated for their hard work -- if it
takes cold hard cash to motivate someone, I'm all for that. If a cold beer will
do, I'm ok with that too. :D
_______________________________________________
computer-go mailing list
computer-go@computer-go.org
http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
