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As a lab technician at a small UK university in 1976, I had access to the uni' "computer centre" and its IBM mainframe. I taught myself BASIC at a desk sized VDU, during my lunch hours. Users logged in and got a 1K, 2K or 4K "slot". The BASIC was single-commands-to-a-line, numeric variables only. The mainframe became a GEC 4082. So it was on to ALGOL and COBOL, using punched cards. Meanwhile, on the home front, the first home computers had arrived. The ZX80. Swiftly followed by the Tandy TRS80, Commodore PET, Apple II, etc etc. Thousands of UK programmers submitted free code to a dozen different computer mags every week - none of them were named Bill Gates. Perhaps if they'd sold someone elses code to a major player, like Bill G did, they'd all be just as rich now?
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