Steve Jobs patents resignation....oops, no, he just resigned

[reyfer]

Steve Jobs just resigned as CEO of Apple

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/08/24/steve-jobs-resigns-as-apple-ceo/

[JDShu]

I knew I should have shorted some Apple shares...

[DangerOnTheRanger]

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

[Bandit]

Steve Jobs just resigned as CEO of Apple

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/08/24/steve-jobs-resigns-as-apple-ceo/

Dang you beet me to it! :KS

[christoph411]

First reaction...

HOLY <SNIP>

[Dr. C]

Is cancer (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/17/steve-jobs-cancer-treatment_n_824441.html) the reason behind this?

[sffvba[e0rt]

At least this time he is leaving out of his own free will (I assume)...


404

[ninjaaron]

I was surprised, even though I shouldn't be. The guy does have a few health problems.

[SoFl W]

Removed by original poster

[Ric_NYC]

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/9855/jobsl.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/707/jobsl.png/)

[DangerOnTheRanger]

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/9855/jobsl.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/707/jobsl.png/)

:lolflag: This. :lolflag:

[szymon_g]

"Letter from Steve Jobs
To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve"

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/08/24Letter-from-Steve-Jobs.html

hm... guy did a lot of great job :)

[dinamic1]

:(

[Copper Bezel]

If he's staying on as chairman of the board, I don't imagine how this could really affect Apple's image, and the company knows better than to do anything Jobs wouldn't after their little trial separation. Still, there's this (http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/08/24/fallen-apple-steve-jobs-resigns/?iid=HP_LN) ... yuck.


Apple shares today traded up $2.58 to close at $376.18 per share. As of 6:53pm, it already had lost $22.18 per share, or 5.9% of its value.

[overdrank]

Threads merged. :)

[el_koraco]

Still, there's this (http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/08/24/fallen-apple-steve-jobs-resigns/?iid=HP_LN) ... yuck.

That's just short-selling.

[Thewhistlingwind]

0_0

What?

[wojox]

Now maybe Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Shuttleworth will unite as one to create "The Most Awesome Ultimate Operating System Ever". :P

[slooksterpsv]

While I feel bad for Mr. Jobs because he does have some health issues, I have no issues with him. If anything I have issues with Apple the company. I hope Steve gets better and that. Tim knows where he's heading with the company, he has stepped in quite a bit for Steve when he's been out on personal matters, so Apple really won't change that much.

Steve needs to take care of himself first, worry about Apples and oranges later.

[christopher.wortman]

Awesome news. I hold nothing against the man. I respect my enemies and know the power he held. This just means Linux will continue to get better, and Apple will finally start to erode itself away. They already started by talks of dropping Intel (the worlds best processor) for Arm... Something tells me that somehow the next core from Intel will be WAY more powerful than Arm... just a hunch... I can only hope they continue to race to the bottom. Get out of computing and focus on devices... oh man... time to sell apple stock...

[KiwiNZ]

Awesome news. I hold nothing against the man. I respect my enemies and know the power he held. This just means Linux will continue to get better, and Apple will finally start to erode itself away. They already started by talks of dropping Intel (the worlds best processor) for Arm... Something tells me that somehow the next core from Intel will be WAY more powerful than Arm... just a hunch... I can only hope they continue to race to the bottom. Get out of computing and focus on devices... oh man... time to sell apple stock...

Nonsense

Did Ford die when Henry Ford left? Did MSFT die when Bill Gates stepped down? Did HP die when the Hewletts and Packards left?

Over the last few years Steve Jobs has only had limited time actively doing the CEO role.Tim Cook has been steering the ship for some time and has been successful. Also
the rest of the VP Team is still there.

[Thewhistlingwind]

Nonsense


You really didn't have to elaborate. ;)

[PapaGary]

Remember when Steve and Bill got together for a chat?

Link (http://www.sadanduseless.com/2010/05/steve-jobs-vs-bill-gates/)

[JDShu]

Did Ford die when Henry Ford left? Did MSFT die when Bill Gates stepped down? Did HP die when the Hewletts and Packards left?


All three of those companies have been losing relevance in their respective markets :/

[disabledaccount]

They already started by talks of dropping Intel (the worlds best processor) for Arm... Something tells me that somehow the next core from Intel will be WAY more powerful than Arm...Most of ARM cpu's is designed for small embedded systems so direct comparison of processing power of low-power 1.2GHz ARM and 3GHz i7 is just nonsense. But if You compare core architecture - number of asm instructions needed to do the same things on both CPUs (resulting executable size) and efficiency per Watt then Intel is just crap, and atom is just even bigger stinking crap...
Not that I'm against Intel - they just have to continue with core that has backward compatibility and underlying microcode processing cores/pipelines are very good.

[christopher.wortman]

Nonsense

Did Ford die when Henry Ford left? Did MSFT die when Bill Gates stepped down? Did HP die when the Hewletts and Packards left?

Over the last few years Steve Jobs has only had limited time actively doing the CEO role.Tim Cook has been steering the ship for some time and has been successful. Also
the rest of the VP Team is still there.

Hewlett Packard dead in the water :D They are out of the PC game bc of a tablet fiasco with webos it is a good day in computing... HP is out and Apple is next :-P

[KiwiNZ]

All three of those companies have been losing relevance in their respective markets :/

MSFT main OS is 80% Plus, its Office App No's 1 ( Linux <1%)
Ford and HP are tenth and eleventh of the Fortune 500.

[christopher.wortman]

Most of ARM cpu's is designed for small embedded systems so direct comparison of processing power of low-power 1.2GHz ARM and 3GHz i7 is just nonsense. But if You compare core architecture - number of asm instructions needed to do the same things on both CPUs (resulting executable size) and efficiency per Watt then Intel is just crap, and atom is just even bigger stinking crap...
Not that I'm against Intel - they just have to continue with core that has backward compatibility and underlying microcode processing cores/pipelines are very good.


That's just it though. Less compatibility with legacy code, which means old OSX applications won't work on new macs!

[JDShu]

MSFT main OS is 80% Plus, its Office App No's 1 ( Linux <1%)
Ford and HP are tenth and eleventh of the Fortune 500.

The world of computing is no longer the desktop. Microsoft is losing it's dominance as the desktop becomes less relevant.

The American auto industry had to be bailed out it was doing so badly.

HP wants to spin off it's entire product division.

[KiwiNZ]

Hewlett Packard dead in the water :D They are out of the PC game bc of a tablet fiasco with webos it is a good day in computing... HP is out and Apple is next :-P

That does not even rate a reply.

But you may wish to look at the IBM example, they sold their PC/Laptop products and their profits have gone up many fold.

[TheNosh]

That's just it though. Less compatibility with legacy code, which means old OSX applications won't work on new macs!

You're right. Changing architectures will kill them. It's a good thing they've never done that before! :rolleyes:

[KiwiNZ]

Lets drop the nonsense and get back on topic

[Khakilang]

All I can say is best of luck and health to Steve Job.

[TheNosh]

Sorry. I suppose I should have elaborated on something resembling a point rather than just making a sarcastic quip.

What I was getting at was the fact that Apple already switched over from PowerPC to X86 and AMD64, and while it bothered some folks, you'll notice that Apple is still around. I haven't seen anything about them switching architecture again, and switching everything to ARM would strike me as silly. It would however make sense to add support for ARM to use in a couple products.

Whatever they do, their last switch didn't kill them, and I don't think another one would either.

I think Jobs leaving will have a negative effect on their stock and their sales for a little while, but their quality will remain the same. Once the public has time to see that the quality of their products was not impacted by his resignation, their stock and sales will return to normal.

[Rasa1111]

lol, The comments at the bottom of that WSJ link crack me up.
"a great, great man", and "oh what a very sad day" stuff. :lolflag:
Come-On.

[TheNosh]

lol, The comments at the bottom of that WSJ link crack me up.
"a great, great man", and "oh what a very sad day" stuff. :lolflag:
Come-On.

From a usability standpoint, the man did a lot. He came up with some ideas, and others he simply saw the potential of.

Xerox sold Apple the graphical interface. Apple got it for as little as they did because Xerox didn't see how valuable it was. Apple saw its potential to make home computers popular.

Making things is important, but so is realising their use. Apple's done a fair amount of both, and Jobs has had a role in that.

[christopher.wortman]

You're right. Changing architectures will kill them. It's a good thing they've never done that before! :rolleyes:


I am not saying they are going to "die". It is just more proof Apple is getting out of the PC game slowly and surely. The desktop becoming "less relevant" is a very good thing for me.

PC Gamers will always game on PC, that is a market that nobody can fill with a console.
Linux users will always use Linux, that is a market nobody with closed source can fill.
Data entry, no matter how great your iPads and Android pads get, will always be done on a computer because it is most comfortable.

The other 75% can get onto portable devices. Good riddance. Hardware quality will go up, the price will rise a little but not much. You cannot replace a desktop PC. People said for years from 1995 til around 1999 when the Laptop became more popular that it would "soon replace the clunky desktop PC!" Guess what they still exist!

Back onto topic. Apple losing Steve Jobs can be very detrimental. They almost died right before he swooped in and saved them with OSX and cleaning up the mess of licensing OS9 out as software.

They may not "die" in the traditional sense, and you will have your Apple fans who will camp for days for the next iPhone, but they may lose a lot of their magic. He single handedly made Apple what it is today.

[limthasage07]

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/9855/jobsl.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/707/jobsl.png/)

:lolflag:

[sffvba[e0rt]

Apple was dying and with a little cash from uncle Bill and the genius of Jobs they are the success we see today... but I think what Apple did right was they have captured that success recipe and they have the people at the top to continue doing what they have been doing so well...


404

[uRock]

The American auto industry had to be bailed out it was doing so badly.

Ford rejected being bailed out.

[JDShu]

Ford rejected being bailed out.

They did, instead they scaled down operations. My point that they were not doing well still stands, especially compared to their dominance in the past.

[TheNosh]

Linux users will always use Linux, that is a market nobody with closed source can fill.


They could close the source on Fedora tomorrow and I'd still use it. I use it because I like it, not cause it's open.

More on topic:
Apple still makes a large profit off their PCs. I don't think they'll "get out of the PC market" until that stops being the case. What they do seem to be doing (as well as what we've been seeing in previews of Windows 8) is blurring the line between the desktop interface and the mobile interface. They're trying to make the look and feel as similar as possible, so that folks can transition seamlessly from their desktop to their mobile device with very little thought of how to navigate each device differently.

This does not by any means mean that the desktop will disappear, or that Apple will leave that market. The interface is just going to go through some changes. At the moment, I'm not such a fan of them, but I'll see what happens. Windows 8 demos have shown that the option to use the Aero interface from Win7 is still present, so there's at least one release before I have too much to worry about.

[KiwiNZ]

They did, instead they scaled down operations. My point that they were not doing well still stands, especially compared to their dominance in the past.

yes they did do some restructuring, however as at 2011 they are still in the top 10 of the Fortune 500 Corporation. That is no mean achievement.

[PhillyPhil]

Awesome news. I hold nothing against the man. I respect my enemies and know the power he held. This just means Linux will continue to get better, and Apple will finally start to erode itself away. They already started by talks of dropping Intel (the worlds best processor) for Arm... Something tells me that somehow the next core from Intel will be WAY more powerful than Arm... just a hunch... I can only hope they continue to race to the bottom. Get out of computing and focus on devices... oh man... time to sell apple stock...

There's no point comparing a top end x86 chip with anything from ARM - they are in completely different classes, competing in completely different areas.

ARM is *very* good at what it does: high efficiency (processing to energy consumption) computing.
Use the right chip for the job: if you need raw processing power ARM is not for you. If you want efficiency they are second to none.

[JDShu]

yes they did do some restructuring, however as at 2011 they are still in the top 10 of the Fortune 500 Corporation. That is no mean achievement.

The Fortune 500 measures American companies. The automotive market is more than that. Perhaps Ford is undergoing a resurgence, we'll see - they have a lot of ground to make up to reach their former glory. Again, my point stands - they are much less relevant today than they were.

[KiwiNZ]

The Fortune 500 measures American companies. The automotive market is more than that. Perhaps Ford is undergoing a resurgence, we'll see - they have a lot of ground to make up to reach their former glory. Again, my point stands - they are much less relevant today than they were.

Ford Croporate has assests exceeding $US160 Billion. Their Fiscal 2010 returned a Net revenue of $US6.6Billion. Fiscal 2011 is showing growth over Fiscal 2010. Your point stands nowhere.

But this is a digression from the Topic in hand.

[mips]

I haven't seen anything about them switching architecture again, and switching everything to ARM would strike me as silly. It would however make sense to add support for ARM to use in a couple products.

:confused: They're already using ARM in the ipad, iphone, ipod & time capsule?

[TheNosh]

:confused: They're already using ARM in the ipad, iphone, ipod & time capsule?

I suppose I should have said "It does make sense," not "it would make sense."

I still haven't heard anything about them planning to switch all their desktop and laptop models to ARM.

[ninjaaron]

Now maybe Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Shuttleworth will unite as one to create "The Most Awesome Ultimate Operating System Ever". :P

I've been reflecting on Steve Jobs a lot today because of this news. It's sort of ridiculous putting Mark Shuttleworth in the same sentence as Gates and Jobs. I wouldn't exactly say I'm a fan of all of Apple and MS's policies and practices, but these two guys, along with Ballmer and Woz, took nothing but brainpower and vision and forged a completely new platform (that nobody had even imagined before they came along), which has since become one of the most diverse and profitable economic sectors of all. Course, the creation of WWW by *nix hackers has also been enormous in the success of the platform, but it wouldn't be what it is if it were not for the advent of personal computing. I'm sitting in a café in Tel Aviv on $450 laptop with specs that would have made it a super-computer 20 years ago, connected to the internet over wifi, communicating to people from around the world instantly while the girl next to me reads the news on her iPhone (perhaps a headline about Steve Jobs, not knowing or caring who he is).

No single person can take credit for all of that, but I guarantee that none of this would be happening if it were not for the vision and talents of Gates and Jobs (Linus gets honourable mention, but in a sense, while he is an extremely gifted programmer, his work more represents a rallying point for the entire FOSS movement. If it wasn't Linux, it would be something else. Linus wouldn't have had a 386 at home if it were not for Apple and MS).

Mark Shuttleworth, by contrast, is a skilled entrepreneur who bankrolls and leads his pet project, which brings together the best of free and open source software into an attractive and easy to use package (and of course, started a successful internet security company, which he sold for millions of dollars some years back). That is a big deal, and it's more than I've done with my life, but it's nothing compared to Gates and Jobs, who single-handedly created the largest sector in IT.

I do not love Gates or Jobs, but I respect them and their contributions to tech immensely. Their innovation has totally reshaped the way people experience the world.

[VOT Productions]

Back to the topic, it was health reasons.

[keithpeter]

Hello All

The man is obviously ill, and at least we know he will get the best medical care available. If you've lost someone from a terminal illness you know where his immeadiate family are, if you have not had that experience, good luck and I hope it stays that way!

http://info.cern.ch/

Remember that Jobs' previous company NeXT provided Tim Berners-Lee with a powerful and network friendly workstation to run the first Web server. NeXT also (I think) had influence on GUIs for Unix systems generally. Display Postscript? Have I got my history right?

Apple will continue to produce superbly designed devices and probably to invent new ones. Ive is still in charge of design, and he is, in my opinion, a genius,

http://designmuseum.org/design/jonathan-ive

Remember that Free operating systems need hardware to run on. We have access to commodity priced hardware as a result of Bill Gates and his gamble in pursuading IBM to open the design of the PC to other hardware companies.

Apple is a hardware company. Lots of new devices to try open source operating systems on!

[mips]

I still haven't heard anything about them planning to switch all their desktop and laptop models to ARM.

That won't happen, ARM is not suited for that purpose.

[VOT Productions]

Whether it's ARM or MicrosoftCPU stop arguing lol.

[ninjaaron]

http://designmuseum.org/design/jonathan-ive


Yeah, strong work. It's kinda funny looking at the iMac now. Nice lines, but what the hell is with the color? It's almost as bad as the default Ubuntu pallet!

I thought it was cool when it came out though, but I was 12, and no other computer had ever had lines like that. It was debilitatingly slow, if I recall, though all of the machines connected to my highschool's network were awful, and I have a suspicion now that it may have had at least as much to do with the network as the machines connected to it. I believe it was Apple network software in the pre-Darwin days, which was atrocious. I had a huge bias against apple because of my experience with these machines at school. However, after I graduated, I bought at 12" powerbook with OSX 10.1 or 10.2 and a G4 (the last Motorola chip Apple used). That machine totally changed my view on Mac.

I still think they are wonderful for the average PC user, though Linux is much better for my needs and budget these days.

[Dry Lips]

It is too bad that he has to step down because of health issues.
I wish him good health and a long life.

I'd also like to add that I really haven't used Macs since the pre-
OSX days. It really sucked back then, but moving on to a modified
BSD platform was a stroke of genius!

I think Macs will continue to fill it's niche for years to come.

[keithpeter]

I thought it was cool when it came out though, but I was 12, and no other computer had ever had lines like that.

Yup, out of Ive's mind, with iterations involving discussions with Jobs came a product that

1) redefined what a computer could be, and

2) generated revenue for a company that was so short of money that MS had to buy shares to bail them out!

That first 'tray cd' version was a pig to work on though...

[TheNosh]

That won't happen, ARM is not suited for that purpose.

Precisely. That was my point.

They aren't switching every product to ARM, because they would loose some raw power. But it was argued that a switch in architecture would cause a lack of compatibility which would kill Apple.

I was saying that if they did switch (to something that actually made sense for desktops. Not ARM.) It wouldn't kill them, as they've switched before and they're still around.

[Dry Lips]

I think Macs will continue to fill it's niche for years to come.
I'm thinking about their computers here. Obviously their other products
cannot be called "niche"-products. (iPhone, iPad, etc.)

[forrestcupp]

I heard Jobs finally got a job with the Windows 8 development team. He's had his resume in over there for years. :)


Remember when Steve and Bill got together for a chat?

Link (http://www.sadanduseless.com/2010/05/steve-jobs-vs-bill-gates/)Now that was hilarious.


Hewlett Packard dead in the water :D They are out of the PC game bc of a tablet fiasco with webos it is a good day in computing... HP is out and Apple is next :-PJust because HP is changing how they do things doesn't mean they are dead in the water. Companies that stubbornly don't change when needed are the ones dead in the water.


And about the whole Mac & ARM thing. The only reason that was ever rumored was just to scare Intel into continuing to give them good deals. Intel needed to not feel like there was no competition.

[ninjaaron]

I heard Jobs finally got a job with the Windows 8 development team. He's had his resume in over there for years. :)

BOOM

This man wins the thread.

[Dragonbite]

New ideas isn't "innovation" until it is shared with someone. Steve Jobs and Apple did a nice job of sharing innovations with the whole consumer market! Their focus on "the experience" and not just hardware design or software is what has made them what they are today and I don't think most companies understand (or can do) this!

I fear that Steve is stepping down due to health reasons. Even if it were not terminal, it cannot grant him the energy he's had in his youth. If you look at some of the video montages you can see the drastic drop in weight and color. He doesn't look good, and those presentations and such are probably very taxing on his body.

I enjoyed watching his keynote talks. He was always very engaging, and in his healthier years his "Steve Jobs Reality Warping Field" was very strong. Past few times it only took hours to days to realize I don't want what he is hocking! :dance: It used to take at least a week!

He'll still be Chairman of the Board for a while, which gives a chance for him to be involved as he wants, and to transition power to Tim Cook which will be important.

[forrestcupp]

New ideas isn't "innovation" until it is shared with someone. Steve Jobs and Apple did a nice job of sharing innovations with the whole consumer market!

But they've never shared anything. They came out with the iPad, and now they'll sue you for making a rectangular shaped object! :)

[ninjaaron]

New ideas isn't "innovation" until it is shared with someone. Steve Jobs and Apple did a nice job of sharing innovations with the whole consumer market! Their focus on "the experience" and not just hardware design or software is what has made them what they are today and I don't think most companies understand (or can do) this!

While I fully agree with this assessment, it sort of glosses over the real contribution of Steve Jobs. Experience is a big part of it, but his vision has been so much bigger. If you watch that commercial from 1984, he thought he was building a revolution, and I think he was right. He was seeking to take the power away from business and major tech companies and bring computing to the average human being. A computer in every house was his vision. Of course major changes to the way a user interacts with a computer were necessary for that to become a really, though he stole the actual UI design from Xerox. I don't really fault him for that. Xerox had the interface, but they didn't have the vision to realise what they had created, and they certainly had never dreamed of the kind of thing Jobs was out to accomplish.

Of course, Apple's initial focus on making the computer usable for normal humans had it's oversight in the fact that it aimed so high that price became prohibitive (which is still an issue for Apple, though they are much more in the range of a normal consumer than before). Gates and Ballmer came along with the intelligence to understand Jobs' grand vision, and the business savy to make it a reality (obviously with sacrifices to the quality of the product). In a sense, MS created the market that Apple now thrives in.

It is an interesting fact that revolutionaries tend to be rather ruthless. I'm not saying that Jobs is anywhere near this evil, but I do think there are some interesting parallels Jobs and Apple, and an ideologically based political revolution that ends up as a ruthless dictatorship. Again, I would never say that Jobs is actually at all comparable to Lenin or Hitler, but you can take that analogy pretty far before it breaks down.

Jobs and Gates effectively did put a computer in every desktop, and now Jobs has nearly put a computer in every bag or pocket. He hasn't really created any technology. He's created markets, maybe more than anyone else alive today, for existing tech by understanding what it means. Refining user experience has simply been the primary instrument of that revolution.

As much as the FOSS community hates on Jobs (and somewhat justifiably), it's that same passion for empowering the user that drives FOSS, and he is one of the great pioneers of those ideas, whatever his later exploitations of intellectual property may be.

[Dragonbite]

But they've never shared anything. They came out with the iPad, and now they'll sue you for making a rectangular shaped object! :)

And lose. The courts didn't like the photoshoped image of Samsung's Galaxy comparison.

[Rasa1111]

From a usability standpoint, the man did a lot. He came up with some ideas, and others he simply saw the potential of.

Xerox sold Apple the graphical interface. Apple got it for as little as they did because Xerox didn't see how valuable it was. Apple saw its potential to make home computers popular.

Making things is important, but so is realising their use. Apple's done a fair amount of both, and Jobs has had a role in that.


Yes, I realize this.
But still fail to see how it's a "sad day" and how he was a "great, great (2 greats, mind you) , man.

His poor health is sad though, on that I agree.

[KiwiNZ]

Yes, I realize this.
But still fail to see how it's a "sad day" and how he was a "great, great (2 greats, mind you) , man.

His poor health is sad though, on that I agree.

I would not go so far as to describe Steve Jobs as a great man( that may still come based on his retirement actions) but no one can sensibly deny that he is an Industry Leader and pioneer, he also built then rebuilt a very successful and wealthy company who's products
have influenced the industry and touched millions of people.

[wojox]

I've been reflecting on Steve Jobs a lot today because of this news. It's sort of ridiculous putting Mark Shuttleworth in the same sentence as Gates and Jobs. I wouldn't exactly say I'm a fan of all of Apple and MS's policies and practices, but these two guys, along with Ballmer and Woz, took nothing but brainpower and vision and forged a completely new platform (that nobody had even imagined before they came along), which has since become one of the most diverse and profitable economic sectors of all. Course, the creation of WWW by *nix hackers has also been enormous in the success of the platform, but it wouldn't be what it is if it were not for the advent of personal computing. I'm sitting in a café in Tel Aviv on $450 laptop with specs that would have made it a super-computer 20 years ago, connected to the internet over wifi, communicating to people from around the world instantly while the girl next to me reads the news on her iPhone (perhaps a headline about Steve Jobs, not knowing or caring who he is).

No single person can take credit for all of that, but I guarantee that none of this would be happening if it were not for the vision and talents of Gates and Jobs (Linus gets honourable mention, but in a sense, while he is an extremely gifted programmer, his work more represents a rallying point for the entire FOSS movement. If it wasn't Linux, it would be something else. Linus wouldn't have had a 386 at home if it were not for Apple and MS).

Mark Shuttleworth, by contrast, is a skilled entrepreneur who bankrolls and leads his pet project, which brings together the best of free and open source software into an attractive and easy to use package (and of course, started a successful internet security company, which he sold for millions of dollars some years back). That is a big deal, and it's more than I've done with my life, but it's nothing compared to Gates and Jobs, who single-handedly created the largest sector in IT.

I do not love Gates or Jobs, but I respect them and their contributions to tech immensely. Their innovation has totally reshaped the way people experience the world.

What? The first graphical user interface was developed at the Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) in the 1970s for the Xerox Alto computer. Steve Jobs visited there when the interface was under development and saw it as the future of computing, incorporating it into the Apple Lisa’s software platform which eventually led to the Macintosh.

At a time when Microsoft and their MS-DOS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Paterson) operating system were struggling for innovation, Apple approached them to develop software for the Macintosh. This gave Microsoft a market for some of their product, and also gained them invaluable experience with GUI-based operating systems.

So if Apple did not invent the GUI and Microsoft didn't invent MS-DOS, how is that much different then Ubuntu. Mr. Shuttleworth did create a pretty good Algorithm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thawte) in digital certificates and Internet security.

[TheNosh]

What? The first graphical user interface was developed at the Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) in the 1970s for the Xerox Alto computer. Steve Jobs visited there when the interface was under development and saw it as the future of computing, incorporating it into the Apple Lisa’s software platform which eventually led to the Macintosh.

At a time when Microsoft and their MS-DOS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Paterson) operating system were struggling for innovation, Apple approached them to develop software for the Macintosh. This gave Microsoft a market for some of their product, and also gained them invaluable experience with GUI-based operating systems.

So if Apple did not invent the GUI and Microsoft didn't invent MS-DOS, how is that much different then Ubuntu. Mr. Shuttleworth did create a pretty good Algorithm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thawte) in digital certificates and Internet security.

Jobs and Woz thought to make computers accessible to the masses. And they built many of the first personal computers themselves.

Gates developed the Altair BASIC interpreter.

Shuttleworth made Thawte.

They all started small. (Smallish. I'd argue that the first Apple computers were revolutionary, and they actually did design those.)

What makes the difference is where they went from there.

Shuttleworth respun Debian, made the installation process a bit easier, and had a new interface made (though it should be noted that very few are enthusiastic to adopt it). "Bug #1" and what he has said is his primary goal, is to overtake Microsoft's market-share.

Regardless of whether or not Microsoft made the original DOS, they continued to develop and innovate. NT was developed by them, as was the Aero interface that many users have come to enjoy.

Apple has built up by continually recognising new application for existing technology, and new ways to make it more usable and accessible to the public. They may have built OS X from a BSD base, but it was very heavily modified, and the user interface they've made is a creation of their own that's believed by many to be the best graphical interface available.

Apple and Microsoft have succeeded because they are largely driven by making computers easier and more fun to use.

Apple and Microsoft have some competition between them, but neither consistently says that their primary motivation is to beat the other. They were founded in computing Market because they had an interest in it, not simply to beat one another. Shuttleworth's motivation, as shown by the ever quoted bug #1, is primarily to beat Microsoft. I'm far, far more impressed with companies that are driven by the desire to innovate more than the desire to beat competition, and I think the rest of the world is more impressed with that as well.

[KiwiNZ]

Jobs and Woz thought to make computers accessible to the masses. And they built many of the first personal computers themselves.

Gates developed the Altair BASIC interpreter.

Shuttleworth made Thawte.

They all started small. (Smallish. I'd argue that the first Apple computers were revolutionary, and they actually did design those.)

What makes the difference is where they went from there.

Shuttleworth respun Debian, made the installation process a bit easier, and had a new interface made (though it should be noted that very few are enthusiastic to adopt it). "Bug #1" and what he has said is his primary goal, is to overtake Microsoft's market-share.

Regardless of whether or not Microsoft made the original DOS, they continued to develop and innovate. NT was developed by them, as was the Aero interface that many users have come to enjoy.

Apple has built up by continually recognising new application for existing technology, and new ways to make it more usable and accessible to the public. They may have built OS X from a BSD base, but it was very heavily modified, and the user interface they've made is a creation of their own that's believed by many to be the best graphical interface available.

Apple and Microsoft have succeeded because they are largely drive by making computers easier and more fun to use.

Apple and Microsoft have some competition between them, but neither consistently says that their primary motivation is to beat the other. They were founded in computing Market because they had an interest in it, not simply to beat one another. Shuttleworth's motivation, as shown by the ever quoted bug #1, is primarily to beat Microsoft. I'm far, far more impressed with companies that are driven by the desire to innovate more than the desire to beat competition, and I think the rest of the world is more impressed with that as well.

Exactly, to use the Automotive analogy, Henry Ford did not invent the Car nor did he invent the internal combustion engine, what he did see was the potential developed the production process and brought the Motor vehicle to the masses.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs did that for computers when others like Xerox and IBM did not see the future in mass appeal computers and PC's with a GUI on every desktop and every home.

[wojox]

Jobs and Woz thought to make computers accessible to the masses. And they built many of the first personal computers themselves.

Gates developed the Altair BASIC interpreter.

Shuttleworth made Thawte.

They all started small.

That's basically what I was getting at. They took ideas from others and ran with it. :P


I'm far, far more impressed with companies that are driven by the desire to innovate more than the desire to beat competition, and I think the rest of the world is more impressed with that as well.

I would call Unity very innovative.

[Copper Bezel]

Yeah, Ubuntu's just another distribution, and the very idea of distributions is to make software accessible. Shuttleworth's just better at it than some of the other folks, or has better resources.

Torvalds or maybe Stallman I could see in the same sentence as Jobs and Gates, Shuttleworth not so much. And neither Torvalds nor Stallman has brought about the kind of revolutionary changes that the other two have. It's like the difference between being Henry Ford (who certainly didn't invent the automobile, but brought it to the masses) and being Elon Musk (cofounder and CEO of Tesla Motors.)

Edit: DAMMIT. Ninja'd to all hell.

[KiwiNZ]

The Steve Jobs timeline

1971 -- Meets Steve Wozniak, with whom Jobs will later found Apple.

1975 -- Starts attending meetings of the "Homebrew Computer Club," for home computer enthusiasts.

1976 -- Jobs and Wozniak raise US$1,750 and build their first marketable table-top computer, the Apple I.

1976 -- Founds Apple Computer Company with Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Wayne sells his stake two weeks later.

1976 -- Jobs and Wozniak launch Apple I for $666.66, the first single-board computer with a video interface and an onboard Read Only Memory (ROM), which instructed the machine on how to load programs from an external source.

1977 -- Apple is incorporated as Apple Computer Inc. and the new company buys out the original partnership.

1977 -- Apple launches Apple II, the world's first widely used personal computer.

1980 -- Apple III launched.

1980 -- Apple goes public, share price jumps from $22 to $29 on the first day of trading.

1981 -- Jobs involves himself in Macintosh development.

1983 -- Recruits John Sculley as Apple president and chief executive officer.

1983 -- Announces "Lisa," the first mouse-controlled computer. It fails in the marketplace.

1984 -- Apple launches Macintosh with a splashy ad campaign on Super Bowl Sunday.

1985 -- Jobs ousted from Apple after boardroom struggle with Sculley. Jobs resigns and takes five Apple employees with him.

1985 -- Founds Next Inc. to develop computer hardware and software. Company later renamed Next Computer Inc.

1986 -- Buys Pixar from George Lucas for less than $10 million. Company later renamed Pixar Animation Studios.

1989 -- Next launches $6,500 NeXT Computer, also known as The Cube. It comes with a monochrome monitor, and fails in the marketplace.

1996 -- Apple acquires Next Computer for $427 million; Jobs becomes advisor to Apple Chairman Gilbert F. Amelio.

1997 -- Jobs becomes interim CEO and chairman of Apple Computer Inc. after Amelio is ousted. Jobs' salary is $1.

1998 -- Apple releases the all-in-one iMac, which sells millions of units, financially reviving the company and boosting its share price by 400 percent. IMac wins the Gold Award from British Design and Art Direction. Vogue calls it "one of Spring's hottest fashion statements," and Business Week says it is "one of the century's lasting images."

1998 -- Apple returns to profitability and records four profitable quarters in a row.

2000 -- 'Interim' dropped from Jobs' title.

2001 -- Apple makes first foray into consumer electronics with launch of iPod, the portable MP3 player. (It sells more than 4.4 million iPods in fiscal 2004.)

2003 -- Jobs announces the iTunes Music Store, which sells encoded songs and albums.

2004 -- In August, Jobs is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and undergoes surgery. He recovers and returns to work in September.

2007 -- Jobs announces the iPhone, one of the first smartphones without a keyboard, at Macworld Expo.

2008 -- In late December Apple announces that Jobs will not deliver the keynote at the 2009 Macworld Expo or attend the event, sparking speculation about his health.

2009 -- In early January Jobs says his dramatic weight loss was caused by a hormone imbalance. He says the condition would not hinder his abilities to function as CEO. Around a week later Jobs says he will take a leave of absence from Apple until June because his medical condition had changed. He does not disclose his ailment. COO Tim Cook will handle Apple's day-to-day operations during Jobs' recovery period. Apple says Jobs will be involved with major strategic decisions.

June 2009 -- The Wall Street Journal reports that Jobs underwent a liver transplant. A Tennessee hospital later releases a statement confirming the operation.

June 2009 -- Apple confirms that Jobs is returning to work at the end of the month.

January 2010 -- Apple announces the iPad tablet computer, which becomes an instant success and spawns a new category of mobile computing devices.

September 2010 -- Jobs appears on stage in San Francisco to announce Apple's second-generation Apple TV set-top box, which streams movies from the Internet or mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad directly to TV sets.

January 2011 -- Apple announces Jobs is taking a medical leave of absence, without specifying a reason for the leave or how long he'd be away. Questions are raised about the severity of Jobs' health problems, and its impact on the company's stock, product development and business operations.

March 2011 -- Taking a break from his medical leave, Jobs makes an appearance at an event in San Francisco to introduce the iPad 2.

June 2011 -- While still on leave, Jobs appears at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco to introduce the iCloud and iOS 5. A few days later, Jobs appears in front of the Cupertino City Council with a proposal to build a spaceship-like campus in the city.

August 2011 -- Jobs steps down as Apple's CEO, saying he can "no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO." Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook assumes the CEO title. Jobs remains at Apple as chairman of the board.

That is a fairly impressive career and list of achievements

[ninjaaron]

What? The first graphical user interface was developed at the Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) in the 1970s for the Xerox Alto computer. Steve Jobs visited there when the interface was under development and saw it as the future of computing, incorporating it into the Apple Lisa’s software platform which eventually led to the Macintosh.

At a time when Microsoft and their MS-DOS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Paterson) operating system were struggling for innovation, Apple approached them to develop software for the Macintosh. This gave Microsoft a market for some of their product, and also gained them invaluable experience with GUI-based operating systems.

So if Apple did not invent the GUI and Microsoft didn't invent MS-DOS, how is that much different then Ubuntu. Mr. Shuttleworth did create a pretty good Algorithm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thawte) in digital certificates and Internet security.My posts contain all of the information in this post. I understand that my posts are too long to read, but please make an effort if you want to criticise them. I was arguing that they created the personal computing market, not invented the technologies upon which it was based. This is a much more substantial contribution, in my opinion. People create new technology all the time. There isn't one in a million who has done what Steve and Bill have.


Edit: DAMMIT. Ninja'd to all hell.

No one would have noticed. My posts are all tl;dr
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/picard-facepalm.jpg

[wojox]

My posts contain all of the information in this post. I understand that my posts are too long to read, but please make an effort if you want to criticise them.

My apologies. I see your point now that I have read your whole post. I have done the Epic tl;dr

:P

[TheNosh]

I would call Unity very innovative.

While I disagree, that's largely subjective, so I'll leave that alone. I'm more worried about their goals than their actions.

Apple and Microsoft innovate to innovate. Canonical innovates to beat Microsoft, and they rarely even pretend otherwise. I'm not impressed.

[forrestcupp]

While I disagree, that's largely subjective, so I'll leave that alone.

There's no question that Unity is innovative. An innovation is just the introduction of something new. Something can be innovative and crappy at the same time.

[ninjaaron]

There's no question that Unity is innovative. An innovation is just the introduction of something new. Something can be innovative and crappy at the same time.

I'm inclined to disagree, and I love Unity.

[chegarty]

I've probably said before that I like Apple almost as much as I like Microsoft, and that certainly is not a compliment. However, it is hard to dispute the massive effect of Steve Jobs's ideology on the technology industry. For better or worse (and it is, I can assure you, both in great measure) Apple as a company has taken on his personality traits: Both are artistic, visionary, domineering, and at times come across as annoyingly self-aggrandizing.

I'm almost certain that Cook will fail to live up to the expectations set for him, in the same way that Ballmer has failed to meet the expectations set forth for him after Gates left. Granted, Ballmer is not generally seen as a good CEO and I may be proven incorrect, but it's very difficult to follow a figurehead like that. It makes me wonder what will happen to the Linux community after Linus Torvalds leaves us to become a dive master. :P

I hope that Mr. Jobs has a happy retirement and is rid of his illness. I think it will be interesting to see what he does next, as he's proven before that he doesn't like to sit around.

Cheers!

[TheNosh]

There's no question that Unity is innovative. An innovation is just the introduction of something new. Something can be innovative and crappy at the same time.

Well yes, based on definition, "innovative" simply means to introduce something new. Some degree of quality or usefulness is generally implied when the term is used, though, because without that, no one really cares about the innovation.

I could design a keyboard that has every key on a separate piece, all wired together from miles apart so that one would have to travel for weeks to write a whole sentence with it. That would be new, that would be innovative. That would, however, suck.

In other words: I assumed "innovative" was meant to mean "innovative and useful," because otherwise the fact that it's innovative means nothing.

[bruno9779]

He has been real sick for ages, he should have stepped down years ago.


Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer death both in the United States[1] and internationally.[2] Pancreatic cancer often has a poor prognosis: for all stages combined, the 1- and 5-year relative survival rates are 25% and 6%, respectively;[1] for local disease the 5-year survival is approximately 20%

If I got one of the worst cancers around, I would spend my time with my family, not making tech toys.

[TheNosh]

He has been real sick for ages, he should have stepped down years ago.



If I got one of the worst cancers around, I would spend my time with my family, not making tech toys.

I've known people who have died of cancer. The ones that died happily were the ones who didn't allow the fact that they had cancer to change how they lived their life.

I applaud him for continuing to live the life he wanted for as long as he was able to do so.

[KiwiNZ]

He has been real sick for ages, he should have stepped down years ago.



If I got one of the worst cancers around, I would spend my time with my family, not making tech toys.

Take it from someone with a serious medical condition, keeping busy is therapeutic and helps distract from the ever present and ever nagging pain.

[bruno9779]

I see your points, but I also think that there is a difference between keeping busy and keeping away from one's loved ones, especially when the clock is ticking so much faster

[Dragonbite]

I think also, he couldn't leave his "baby" un-finished. He's put so much sweat, blood, tears and years into it and brought it from the brink of death to where it is now. The last thing he'll want to do is walk away and let it crumble.

Once he's passed, then it is allowed to crumble, but so long as he's alive (and able to keep it from failing) it should keep going strong.

[ninjaaron]

What's all of this about Apple crumbling?

They have some of the top engineers and designers in the industry, and they are the most profitable company in the world. Plus, they are sitting on an enormous pile of money, waiting for a "strategic opportunity," whatever the hell that means. With their current momentum, it will take decades or some huge unforeseeable disaster for them to self-destruct, and that is assuming the current CEO is incompetent for the task. It's a big job, no doubt, but Tim is pretty capable. Steve Jobs did do things nobody else has done and are not likely to be repeated in this generation. Sustaining the success of a multi-billion dollar tech company is not one of those things.

At present, Linux is a much bigger threat to MS than Mac, since the mind-share is starting to break up. People know that there are better options than Windows, and they aren't as afraid to try them. Apple, rightfully, has the reputation as the easiest, smartest, and most attractive operating systems on the market. Windows has a reputation for ad-ware, an annoying update system, Norton eating half the resources, remaining perpetually behind the curve, and being able to run Crysis if your hardware has the minerals. I will grant that they've stepped up their game with Windows 7, but many problems remain.

OSX's key market is people who prefer ease, elegance and simplicity, and are willing to play for it. There is no other platform that competes for this market segment. There are other things that are more important to me in an OS, and to many Windows users out there, and that is fine (even great, I would say). Linux competes for geeks, developers, tweakers, and also normal people who want to be able to ignore their system and don't want to spend money on a Mac.

[Frogs Hair]

I'm sure Apple has planned for this for quite some time . The stock dropped only slightly because investors knew this was coming . Good luck Steve .

[zekopeko]

He has been real sick for ages, he should have stepped down years ago.

If I got one of the worst cancers around, I would spend my time with my family, not making tech toys.

He has the less deadly kind of pancreatic cancer.

[zekopeko]

What's all of this about Apple crumbling?

They have some of the top engineers and designers in the industry, and they are the most profitable company in the world. Plus, they are sitting on an enormous pile of money, waiting for a "strategic opportunity," whatever the hell that means. With their current momentum, it will take decades or some huge unforeseeable disaster for them to self-destruct, and that is assuming the current CEO is incompetent for the task. It's a big job, no doubt, but Tim is pretty capable. Steve Jobs did do things nobody else has done and are not likely to be repeated in this generation. Sustaining the success of a multi-billion dollar tech company is not one of those things.

At present, Linux is a much bigger threat to MS than Mac, since the mind-share is starting to break up. People know that there are better options than Windows, and they aren't as afraid to try them. Apple, rightfully, has the reputation as the easiest, smartest, and most attractive operating systems on the market. Windows has a reputation for ad-ware, an annoying update system, Norton eating half the resources, remaining perpetually behind the curve, and being able to run Crysis if your hardware has the minerals. I will grant that they've stepped up their game with Windows 7, but many problems remain.

OSX's key market is people who prefer ease, elegance and simplicity, and are willing to play for it. There is no other platform that competes for this market segment. There are other things that are more important to me in an OS, and to many Windows users out there, and that is fine (even great, I would say). Linux competes for geeks, developers, tweakers, and also normal people who want to be able to ignore their system and don't want to spend money on a Mac.

I agree with you.I would only add that Ubuntu is also striving to have that ease, elegance and simplicity. There are still ways to go but Ubuntu is getting there.

I think that the biggest impact Apple with Steve at the helm did for consumers is that they forced other computer companies to start investing and caring about design and user experience. Design was usually not the most prominent thing in computers a few years ago but today it is being paid far more attention then before. Just look at Ubuntu, Gnome, Windows Phone 7, Android etc.

[Merk42]

I think also, he couldn't leave his "baby" un-finished.And once the baby is finished he denies creating it for years, forcing it to be raised on welfare.
ZING!

[ninjaaron]

I agree with you.I would only add that Ubuntu is also striving to have that ease, elegance and simplicity. There are still ways to go but Ubuntu is getting there.

One obstacle is that Ubuntu is pretty much limited to PC hardware (since it would be incredibly stupid to buy a Mac for an Ubuntu installation), and there is nobody else putting together hardware with half the attention to detail and level of design value as Apple.

I agree that the major DE's at the moment (KDE 4, Gnome 3 and Unity/Gnome) are pretty good-looking, though Areo is also looking nice these days. Whether they are actually as simple and intuitive to use as OSX is another matter altogether. (I've tried KDE a bunch of times, and I still can't figure out where anything is:))

[Rasa1111]

I would not go so far as to describe Steve Jobs as a great man( that may still come based on his retirement actions) but no one can sensibly deny that he is an Industry Leader and pioneer, he also built then rebuilt a very successful and wealthy company who's products
have influenced the industry and touched millions of people.

I can't disagree, KiwiNZ.
(first time for everything, eh?) lol :P

[era86]

I would not go so far as to describe Steve Jobs as a great man( that may still come based on his retirement actions) but no one can sensibly deny that he is an Industry Leader and pioneer, he also built then rebuilt a very successful and wealthy company who's products
have influenced the industry and touched millions of people.

+1

Best CEO, IMHO, in my time.

[KiwiNZ]

Out of respect for Steve Jobs who is gravely ill I have closed this thread. I hope you all understand this and respect the decision made.

Thank you