A watan Fabrairun 1976, Gates ya rubuta Open Letter to Hobbyists a cikin wasiƙar MITS inda ya tabbatar da cewa sama da kashi 90 cikin ɗari na masu amfani da Microsoft Altair BASIC ba su biya Microsoft ba don hakan kuma ta yin hakan Altair "kasuwar sha'awa" tana cikin haɗarin kawar da ƙwarin gwiwa ga duk wani ƙwararren mai haɓaka don samarwa, rarrabawa, da kuma kula da ingantaccen software. Wannan wasiƙar ba ta da farin jini tare da yawancin masu sha'awar kwamfuta, amma Gates ya dage a cikin imaninsa cewa masu haɓaka software ya kamata su iya buƙatar biyan kuɗi. Microsoft ya zama MITS a ƙarshen 1976, kuma ya ci gaba da haɓaka tsarin shirye-shiryen software don tsarin harshe daban-daban.
Shekara ta 1976