Petition to Microsoft

[aetherfox]

I haven't got a response, and I haven't seen one yet. So here is a petition to Microsoft asking for stuff about QB4.5, QB7.1 and VBDOS.

I haven't set it up, just here is the actual text. Comment, critique, and tell me what you think needs changing.

This petition to Microsoft is hereby established for the specific purpose of requesting Microsoft to release its older Basic line of products (QBasic 4.5, QuickBasic 7.1 and Visual Basic for DOS) as a freeware/abandon ware product, or to donate its source code to the public domain.

Signers of this petition are active Basic language developers, and have expressed full support is this request to Microsoft. By exempting these products from the Microsoft license and copyright policy, Microsoft will be encouraging more developers, and feeding the online Basic programming community with a new, but dying hope. The support for the community by Microsoft will be appreciated by the signers of this petition, and we ask Microsoft to acknowledge the desire of many hobbyist programmers, and even beginner programmers, who use older compilers like QBasic for fun and a challenge or as a stepping stone to further language. QBasic is known in the community to be a great stepping stone to other Microsoft products such as the Visual Basic line of products.

Signers of this petition would also like to thank Microsoft for other great products like Visual Basic, Visual C++, and computer games, such as Age Of Mythology. We hope that you will fulfil our request.

Some of my legalities might be a little skewed.

And please. Support this.

[Z!re]

You should add that if they where to charge for their software the large number of people who use it would just switch to another free Language/Compiler set.

Otherwise they might get some crazy ideas... it IS MS you know.

[whitetiger0990]

ya, when i emailed them about a windows qbasic compiler i said that it should be free or else people would just continue using the older DOS version and not use the windows one.

[na_th_an]

Great idea. Put this online and I'll be the first to sign.

To me it is stupid that microsoft keeps forbiding the free distribution of a product that is 17 years old.

[TheBigBasicQ]

I too support it. I am ready to sign it whenever you put it online =). I feel you should add a line saying that "since this software has no commericial value any more...."

[Zack]

I'll sign it, o' course.
I'll make the MySQL db too, if you want.

[Silent-Death]

I'll sign the thing, just give me a pen.

[Agamemnus]

fulfil

[Sterling Christensen]

Yeah, but what's in it for Microsoft?

The most realistic plan would be to try to buy the rights to QuickBASIC from MS, but I don't think all of us could scrape together enough money.

Anyway, I guess I would take out any suggestion of donating source to the public domain. The request will probably seem a lot more reasonable without it, even if that part is just a suggestion, because it will provoke an automatic No from them.

I pretty sure it's futile, but you'll have my vote anyhow.

[na_th_an]

How much would it be? Anybody knows?

Do you notice the danger of someone wanting to buy it? Now microsoft doesn't give a damn about the compiler. It is illegal to download it, but nobody cares, so it is fine. That's what we call abandonware: nobody_cares-ware. But if someone who cared bought the copyright, sites like this would disappear.

I doubt that it is gonna happen, but hey, there is like 1000 people here, and many, many more in other QB sites... Moderately big market, isn't it?