[Info-vax] Fwd: Apple says company co-founder Steve Jobs has died

[Neil Rieck]

>
> Where a Bill Gates could take over an industry by moving in
> and occupying ground, in a sense he was a traditional monopolist.
> But Jobs made things that people wanted, even if they did not
> know it at the time. Partly it was perception, but largely it was a
> matter of substance as well: given a problem, he worked relentlessly
> to find not just _a_ solution, but _the_ solution.
>
> RIP, Steve Jobs.  You were one of a kind.

The only difference between Jobs and Gates is that Jobs was more
idealistic. Gates had no problem dealing with big companies like IBM
and Intel. Remember that Jobs wouldn't even with Ken Olsen which is
why DEC tried (then failed) at the Rainbow.

Now that is not meant to be a cheap shot at either of them. It's just
that in the case of Microsoft, the company that plays with the big
fish is likely to get much bigger (provided they don't get eaten).

###

Reality check: In his book "Idea Man" Paul Allen talks about an event
where Bill Gates and Steve Balmer tried to squeeze Allen out of
Microsoft at a time when Allen was undergoing treatments for cancer.
This reminded me of how badly Steve Jobs (and Apple) treated Steve
Wozniak when "the woz" was laying in the hospital with airplane-crash-
induced amnesia. Whats the take away? When it came to business, both
Jobs and Gates were first class pricks.

It "appears" to me that Bill Gates has become a more humane in the
past half decade. But if the story about "Jobs refusing to write a one
page introduction to Wozniak's book is true" then all I can say is
that Jobs was still a prick right up to the very end.

Just my 2 cents worth

NSR