[wmf]

I don't think anecdotes are that helpful at understanding Gates's message here. Yes, today there are open source versions of pretty much all developer tools (and that's something to celebrate, since I remember when a "cheap" C compiler was $500). But there's still plenty of software that has no open source equal; if we had a world where nobody paid for software, much of it wouldn't have ever been written.

[belorn]

When looking back at letters like this, its important to be at least aware of the context. I don't think ignoring the context of the letter is helpful at all in understanding why it was written by Bill Gates.

Taken outside the context, one can surely have a discussion about how much software would be made if developers can't use government help as basis for their business model.