So long Steve ..

[Peter Korsten]

2011/10/7 Gert van Santen <g.vansanten at chello.nl>

> I've read quite a bit about Jobs, and I translated his first (unauthorized)
> biography about 12 years ago. I don't think Jobs was such a nice guy, and to
> be honest, I was sort of shocked when I read all the stuff he had done and
> said.
>

Put it this way. Andy linked a video of jobs in 2005, at Stanford. Jobs
basically said that if it weren't for him taking calligraphy classes,
computers wouldn't have had proper typefaces. So much for modesty.

One of the related videos is a speech of Bill Gates at Harvard. After a bit
of self-deprecating humour, Gates only talked about millions of people and
particularly children being disadvantaged, or even dying because there's not
enough profit to be made on medicines.

Gates has given unimaginable amounts of money to charity; Jobs, to my
knowledge, has not, and cancelled Apple's philanthropy projects when he took
over. Their track record for care about the environment is nothing to write
home about either.

The comments on Jobs are the usual worship (especially now he's dead), and
the comment on Gates? "He sounds like Kermit the Frog." And he gets pies
pushed in his face.

Knowing the previous business practices of Microsoft, I'm under no illusion
that Gates would be a nice, affable person. You don't become the richest
person in the world by being nice. But when it comes to actually measurable
accomplishments, then Gates has saved lives and improved living conditions
of many, whereas Jobs has made technology fashionable.

For this, Jobs gets worshipped, and Gates gets ridiculed. Which tells me
that Gates' mission, to get people to care and try to make a difference, it
ultimately doomed to fail.

- Peter
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