Editing Homebrew Computer Club (section)

==History==
[[File:Invitation to First Homebrew Computer Club meeting.jpg|thumb|Invitation to first Homebrew Computer Club meeting, sent by Fred Moore to Steve Dompier]]
[[File:Gordon French, Lee Felsenstein, Harry Garland (2017).jpg|thumb|Gordon French, [[Lee Felsenstein]], and [[Harry Garland]] would frequent the Oasis following the formal meetings of the club.<ref name="Hackers"/>]]
[[File:241 El Camino Real.jpg|thumb|The former site of the Oasis, {{circa}} 2024, which became home to [[Pear VC]] in 2019]]
The Homebrew Computer Club was an informal group of [[Electronics|electronic]] enthusiasts and technically minded hobbyists who gathered to trade parts, [[Electronic circuit|circuits]], and information pertaining to [[DIY]] construction of personal computing [[Peripheral|devices.]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/homebrew_and_how_the_apple.php|title=Homebrew And How The Apple Came To Be|work=atariarchives.org}}</ref>{{self-published source|date=March 2022}} It was started by [[Gordon French]] and [[Fred Moore (activist)|Fred Moore]] who met at the Community Computer Center in [[Menlo Park, California|Menlo Park]]. They both were interested in maintaining a regular, open forum for people to get together to work on making computers more accessible to everyone.<ref>[[John Markoff]], ''[[What the Dormouse Said]]'' ({{ISBN|0-670-03382-0}})</ref>{{page number|date=March 2022}}

The first meeting of the club was held on March 5, 1975, in French's garage in Menlo Park, [[San Mateo County, California]], on the occasion of the arrival in the area of the first [[Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems]] (MITS) [[Altair 8800]] microcomputer, a unit sent for review by [[People's Computer Company]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/2009/03/march-5-1975-a-whiff-of-homebrew-excites-the-valley/ |title=March 5, 1975: A Whiff of Homebrew Excites the Valley |last=Ganapati |first=Priya |date=March 5, 2009 |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |access-date=February 25, 2019 |issn=1059-1028 }}</ref> [[Steve Wozniak]] credits that first meeting as the inspiration to design the [[Apple I]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Wozniak |first=Steve |title=iWoz |url=https://archive.org/details/iwozcomputergeek00wozn |url-access=registration |year=2006 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-33043-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/iwozcomputergeek00wozn/page/150 150]
|quote=After my first meeting, I started designing the computer that would later be known as the Apple I. It was that inspiring.}}</ref> The second meeting was held [https://arkive.net/gallery/homebrew-computer-club at Peninsula School] in Menlo Park, [[Atherton, California|California]].  Subsequent meetings were held at an auditorium at the [[Stanford Linear Accelerator Center]] (SLAC), until 1978, when meetings moved to the [[Stanford Medical School]].<ref>{{cite book
|title=Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer
|url=https://archive.org/details/fireinvalleymaki00frei_0
|url-access=registration
|first1=Paul
|last1=Freiberger
|author-link1=Paul Freiberger
|first2=Michael
|last2=Swaine
|year=1999
|publisher=McGraw-Hill
|isbn=9780071358927
|author-link2=Michael Swaine (technical author)}}{{page number|date=March 2022}}</ref>{{page number|date=March 2022}}

An anecdote from member Thomas "Todd" Fischer relates that after the more-or-less "formal" meetings the participants often reconvened for an informal, late night "swap meet" in the parking lot of the Safeway store down the road, as SLAC campus rules prohibited such activity on campus property.  Others, at the suggestion of [[Roger Melen]], convened at The Oasis,<ref name="Farivar">{{cite web|last1=Farivar|first1=Cyrus|title=Silicon Valley pub that helped birth PC industry to close because of high rent|url=https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/02/silicon-valley-pub-that-helped-birth-pc-industry-to-close-because-of-high-rent/|website=Ars Technica|publisher=Conde Nast|access-date=February 25, 2018|date=February 24, 2018 }}</ref> a bar and grill they considered a pub located on El Camino Real in nearby Menlo Park, recalled years later by a member as "Homebrew's other staging area".<ref>[http://www.bambi.net/bob/homebrew_reunion_article.txt Balin, Fred. "Homebrew's 26th Birthday Commemoration." Email dated March 20, 2001]</ref>{{self-published source|date=March 2022}} As [[Steven Levy]] wrote about the Oasis gatherings:

{{quote|Piling into wooden booths with tables deeply etched with the initials of generations of Stanford students, Garland and Melen and Marsh and Felsenstein and Dompier and French and whoever else felt like showing up would get emboldened by the meeting's energy and pitchers of beer.<ref name="Hackers">{{cite book|last1=Levy|first1=Steven|title=Hackers|url=https://archive.org/details/hackersheroesofc00levy|url-access=limited|date=1984|publisher=Anchor press/Doubleday|isbn=0-385-19195-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/hackersheroesofc00levy/page/213 213]|edition=First|quote=Piling into wooden booths with tables deeply etched with the initials of generations of Stanford students, Garland and Melen and Marsh and Felsenstein and Dompier and French and whoever else felt like showing up would get emboldened by the meeting's energy and pitchers of beer.}}</ref>|sign=|source=}}

The Oasis closed on March 7, 2018, due to unaffordable rent.<ref name="Farivar" /> Its Menlo Park building is a historical landmark; in 2019 the building became home to a venture capital firm, [[Pear VC]].<ref name="Goldfisher">{{cite news |last1=Goldfisher |first1=Alastair |title=Pear Ventures eyes historic digs in historic Menlo Park building |url=https://www.venturecapitaljournal.com/pear-ventures-eyes-new-digs-in-historic-menlo-park-building/ |access-date=5 September 2022 |work=Venture Capital Journal |date=29 August 2019}}</ref>

The 1999 made-for-television movie ''[[Pirates of Silicon Valley]]'' (and the book on which it is based, ''Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer'') describes the role the Homebrew Computer Club played in creating the first personal computers, although the movie took the liberty of placing the meeting in Berkeley and misrepresented the meeting process.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

Many of the original members of the Homebrew Computer Club continue to meet ({{as of|2009|lc=on}}), having formed the 6800 Club, named after the Motorola (now [[Freescale]]) 6800 microprocessor. Occasionally and variously renamed after the release of the 6800, 6809, and other microprocessors, the group continues to meet monthly in [[Cupertino, California]].{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}