[boriscleto]

[magkelly]

Sad, truly sad.

Name one other company CEO who had such impact on the company's products and you as a result...

Bill Gates. I've actually never owned an Apple product in my life. Don't really care for them. I'm a PC person, shrug. I've used Apple stuff in school, at work, but never felt the urge to actually buy one. That being said, I respect Steve Job's legacy.

RIP Mr Jobs, you will be missed.

[Just1MoreDave]

Sad, truly sad.

Name one other company CEO who had such impact on the company's products and you as a result...

Soichiro Honda.

[JeffJS]

Well that will put the WBC looneys in a big blue funk!

So will a flame thrower.

[lammie200]

Bill Gates. I've actually never owned an Apple product in my life. Don't really care for them. I'm a PC person, shrug. I've used Apple stuff in school, at work, but never felt the urge to actually buy one. That being said, I respect Steve Job's legacy.

RIP Mr Jobs, you will be missed.

Sure Gates has had a big impact on his company. And he is philanthropical and charitable and all.

But MS was always behind Apple in terms of vision. MS couldn't even name their initial Windows "trash can" differently than Apple's?

Gates has proven, without a doubt, that you do not need to be different to be successful. Jobs proved that you can be different and successful. Of course his inpiration was to be different.

Ironically, last night after reading many stories on Jobs' life, death, accomplishments, failures, etc., I tried to shut down my Windows 7 PC. No go. I was tempted to rip the thing out of the cabinet and throw it out the window.

[RioRico]

Well that will put the WBC looneys in a big blue funk!

I just came across an interesting mini-interview of John Waters on why we should watch obscene cinema. This comment is appropriate here:

You know, these people that do it are just publicity hounds. It’s like Fred Phelps, that group you know, that god hates fags and then he goes to Marine’s funerals that aren’t gay, which I understand the rage of those parents. However, he came to Provincetown, a very gay place, and just had signs “God hates fags” and not one person, just everyone passed him and no one said one thing and he left. No one complained, no one did anything, no one reacted. He’s there for you to react to. The same way these people, these tiny little crackpot evangelists like Elmer Gantry types that go and do this, they want you... that’s the only way they get noticed. So you’re rising to the bait if you flip out about it.

In other words: Don't feed the trolls.

[magkelly]

Sure Gates has had a big impact on his company. And he is philanthropical and charitable and all.

But MS was always behind Apple in terms of vision. MS couldn't even name their initial Windows "trash can" differently than Apple's?

Gates has proven, without a doubt, that you do not need to be different to be successful. Jobs proved that you can be different and successful. Of course his inpiration was to be different.

Ironically, last night after reading many stories on Jobs' life, death, accomplishments, failures, etc., I tried to shut down my Windows 7 PC. No go. I was tempted to rip the thing out of the cabinet and throw it out the window.

Yeah, most of that is true except for one thing. Apple has also had it's share of bad times and bad tech, and at one point if not for Microsoft they likely wouldn't have survived to make the Ipod and the Iphone. Bill Gates is a big old copycat, true, but a lot of Jobs more interesting innovations also came from someone's brain other than his. He had a good creative team. It wasn't all his genius and to be blunt he could be just as nasty in a business oriented way as Gates can be. He could and did copy and outright steal relevant technology in his time, and he got caught doing it more than once too.

How he treated his folks at Apple and how he treated his own family, often two very different things. Jobs wasn't known for his sunny personality, let's put it that way. But he was a visionary and even if he didn't actually design all of the things he sold he could see them coming and that finally was his gift, knowing which products would appeal to the masses. That was what saved his company in the end, turned it around and made Apple the company it is today. In his own way Gates will leave a similar legacy when he goes. The two of them, they really were responsible for a lot in terms of the tech we use today.

BTW, I've had my share of PC/Windows woes, but I've also worked with Apple computers and I have to tell you that they're not error free by any means, particularly when they are networked. Actually since my Win 7 adoption I can't say that I've had to deal with nearly as much that way as I did with previous versions and I've been using Windows since 3.1 so there you go. There are some things I don't like about the OS, true, but I'd still choose it over the Apple OS any day. I guess it all comes down to what suits you, and though Windows annoys me sometimes, I just don't like the other company's OS enough to change permanently. I've used several different Apple OS's at work, a couple of different Linux versions, in the end I always come back to Windows.

I'm definitely a PC person but I still admire Jobs. He's been compared a lot to Thomas Edison and I do think that comparison is apt. I do think he's going to be remembered that way. As one of the major foreparents of modern computing. He deserves to be, but honestly? I don't think I would have liked him much on a personal level. He was very brilliant, but he could also be a big PITA sometimes too. I'm really wondering how many people at Apple are remembering him, laughing over how snarky he could be and missing him anyway. I'm sure a lot are...

[dmort]

Gizmodo wrote a great piece on him that acknowledged his short comings while paying tribute to his accomplishments. Steve was an important person in our modern world and while the apple faithful will miss him in the short term, we have yet to see if society at large will miss him in the long term. How much of the breakneck pace of technological development can be attributed to Steve's dedication to perfection? I know I'll miss that twinkle in his eye while he says, "there's one more thing..."

[boriscleto]

Yeah, most of that is true except for one thing. Apple has also had it's share of bad times and bad tech, and at one point if not for Microsoft they likely wouldn't have survived to make the Ipod and the Iphone. Bill Gates is a big old copycat, true, but a lot of Jobs more interesting innovations also came from someone's brain other than his. He had a good creative team. It wasn't all his genius and to be blunt he could be just as nasty in a business oriented way as Gates can be. He could and did copy and outright steal relevant technology in his time, and he got caught doing it more than once too.

How he treated his folks at Apple and how he treated his own family, often two very different things. Jobs wasn't known for his sunny personality, let's put it that way. But he was a visionary and even if he didn't actually design all of the things he sold he could see them coming and that finally was his gift, knowing which products would appeal to the masses. That was what saved his company in the end, turned it around and made Apple the company it is today. In his own way Gates will leave a similar legacy when he goes. The two of them, they really were responsible for a lot in terms of the tech we use today.

BTW, I've had my share of PC/Windows woes, but I've also worked with Apple computers and I have to tell you that they're not error free by any means, particularly when they are networked. Actually since my Win 7 adoption I can't say that I've had to deal with nearly as much that way as I did with previous versions and I've been using Windows since 3.1 so there you go. There are some things I don't like about the OS, true, but I'd still choose it over the Apple OS any day. I guess it all comes down to what suits you, and though Windows annoys me sometimes, I just don't like the other company's OS enough to change permanently. I've used several different Apple OS's at work, a couple of different Linux versions, in the end I always come back to Windows.

I'm definitely a PC person but I still admire Jobs. He's been compared a lot to Thomas Edison and I do think that comparison is apt. I do think he's going to be remembered that way. As one of the major foreparents of modern computing. He deserves to be, but honestly? I don't think I would have liked him much on a personal level. He was very brilliant, but he could also be a big PITA sometimes too. I'm really wondering how many people at Apple are remembering him, laughing over how snarky he could be and missing him anyway. I'm sure a lot are...

The difference is Steve never used a monopoly position to push inferior copies. Did he invent the portable media player? No, he made one that worked seamlessly with the media player on your computer. Did he invent the smart phone? No, he made one that a grandmother could use. Did he invent the tablet? No, he made one that wasn't just a laptop without a keyboard.

I have been using Mac OS since System 7. In 1995 it was a steaming piece of crap, but it was still better than Win95 and lightyears ahead of Win3.1. I was an Apple user before Steve came back in 1997. I raged at Steve when he cut off the cloners, a move that saved the company. He made a deal with the devil, Bill Gates, and convinced Wall Street that the company wasn't going to die. It was an incredibly minor deal. $150 million in non-voting stock and an agreement to continue developing Office for Mac for 5 years, something M$ was going to do anyway. I scoffed when the iPod was announced. $500 for 5GB of music? It took some time but he managed to blend OpenSTEP with the Mac OS and create an amazing OS.

I'm not sure what type of networking was giving you trouble, but I can guess it that involved Window$. Because that is the only type of networking that has ever given me any trouble with Mac OS. Linux is a PITA to network with a Mac, but once it's set up it works fine. OS preference is really about what you know. I used Win 3 before I ever used a Mac, we had Apple II's in school, but the first time I used Mac OS I knew it was for me. My first network was 2 Macs and a printer, all connected by Farallon PhoneNet.

[Aristophanes]

I have been using Mac OS since System 7. In 1995 it was a steaming piece of crap, but it was still better than Win95 and lightyears ahead of Win3.1.

With all due respect, System 7.2 was a nimble (mostly) hand-coded gem with robustness and security all in a tiny footprint. With QuickDraw, HyperCard, and QuickTime it was the Mac in essence, before the Internet (and eWorld) and other developments messed things up. It was probably the most "personal" of computing systems, before networking spawned homogeneity.

My input.

[magkelly]

I'm not sure what type of networking was giving you trouble, but I can guess it that involved Window$.

Nope. It was Mac's best computers and strictly Apple software, on both counts. No Windows PC or software was involved in any way. Mac's can be a royal PITA too, when it's business networking. They've gotten better since then I've heard and the ones I used later at work weren't quite as bad, though they crashed a lot too, but using the G4's at design school in particular was just awful. They were constantly going down in the middle of our classes.

[boriscleto]

With all due respect, System 7.2 was a nimble (mostly) hand-coded gem with robustness and security all in a tiny footprint. With QuickDraw, HyperCard, and QuickTime it was the Mac in essence, before the Internet (and eWorld) and other developments messed things up. It was probably the most "personal" of computing systems, before networking spawned homogeneity.

My input.

You left out "GET OFF MY LAWN!"

System 7, how I miss extension conflicts and having to tweak memory settings for individual applications in the get info window...sigh. It's been ages since I last created a RAM disk to boot a minimum system from to get better performance.

[boriscleto]

Nope. It was Mac's best computers and strictly Apple software, on both counts. No Windows PC or software was involved in any way. Mac's can be a royal PITA too, when it's business networking. They've gotten better since then I've heard and the ones I used later at work weren't quite as bad, though they crashed a lot too, but using the G4's at design school in particular was just awful. They were constantly going down in the middle of our classes.

Maybe IT just didn't have a clue, because experience with AppleShare was that it just worked. Most problems I have run into with Macs involve third party software, mainly from Microsoft or Adobe. The worst offenders being M$ server products (Active Directory, Exchange etc) and Adobe Type Manger back in the pre-OS X days.

[RioRico]

How did this thread morph from STEVE JOBS IS DEAD to MAC OS DOES/DOESN'T SUCK ?? Just curious.

[jogiba]

After his liver transplant, while he was recuperating at home in Palo Alto, California, Steve invited me over to catch up on industry events that had transpired during his illness. It turned into a three-hour visit, punctuated by a walk to a nearby park that he insisted we take, despite my nervousness about his frail condition.

He explained that he walked each day, and that each day he set a farther goal for himself, and that, today, the neighborhood park was his goal. As we were walking and talking, he suddenly stopped, not looking well. I begged him to return to the house, noting that I didn’t know CPR and could visualize the headline: “Helpless Reporter Lets Steve Jobs Die on the Sidewalk.”

But he laughed, and refused, and, after a pause, kept heading for the park. We sat on a bench there, talking about life, our families, and our respective illnesses (I had had a heart attack some years earlier). He lectured me about staying healthy. And then we walked back.

Steve Jobs didn’t die that day, to my everlasting relief. But now he really is gone, much too young, and it is the world’s loss.

The Steve Jobs I Knew - Walt Mossberg - Mossblog - AllThingsD