Eulogy for Bob Wallace by Dan Gillmor

Dan Gillmor wrote of Bob Wallace in his September 28 column in the San Jose Mercury: Bob Wallace, personal-computer software pioneer, philanthropist and activist, died last week in San Rafael. He had a too-short life, but accomplished more than most. Wallace was 53 when he died, apparently of natural causes, according to the Marin County coroner's preliminary report. He was one of the first Microsoft employees, but left in the early 1980s to start his own company, Quicksoft, which sold a popular word processor, PC-Write. He may be best known for his early contributions to the genre of software that became called "shareware"-- a marketing method in which people would buy diskettes with free-to-try software on them, or download it, and then let them buy it if they liked it. He had qualms about the commercial software industry, and once told the New York Times, "My philosophy is that I want to make a living, not a killing." Wallace worked, in college and afterward, with some of the industry's leading lights. He joined Microsoft in 1978. Wallace's interests ranged beyond the computing world. He was also known among drug-policy reformers, and funded medical and social research about psychedelic drugs. Wallace had many admirers, including his former employers at Microsoft and technology luminaries in Silicon Valley. "I remeber Bob as a gentle soul who was soft-spoken, but creative, persistent and meticulous in his programming and thinking," Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen told the Times this week. Rest in peace. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *