An Emotional Bill Gates Talks About Steve Jobs on '60 Minutes'

[furqan8421]

Why don't you leave that kind of immature analysis to yourself?

As if Steve was a personal friend of yours? It's a message board, people are entitled to their opinions. Just because we enjoy the products he was responsible for doesn't mean we need to deify the man

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What people do in public and how they feel in private are sometimes two vastly different things. We don't know of the possible charitable donations made by Steve Jobs, just as we don't know the motivations for Bill Gates charitable work. In fact, what are his motivations in this interview regarding Steve Jobs?

Is this a chance to re-write history now that "the other guy" has passed? Is he attempting to siphon off for himself some of the good will people of the world feel for Steve Jobs? We just can't know for sure.

Many have been suspicious of the Gates Foundation and its partners focusing their "charitable work" outside of the US. Some feel this is a preemptive strike to enter the third world market and canonize themselves so that when a billion people finally get the purchasing power, they will choose "their savior" Windows. Even if it takes 20 years, the cost of this investment masquerading as charity is peanuts compared to the reward of dominating that enormous future market.

It's diabolical, yes, but that's Bill Gates for you

Whatever the reason, one is pure speculation. The FACT is that he's addressing the needs of others, and even if it's done for a secondary gain it's still more than what many others have done

 

[touchipods]

This interview would have never happened if Steve Jobs was still alive. Also Microsoft's last innovative OS was Windows XP. Vista-7-and 8 nothing special.

XP is the greatest OS ever made (imo). Only reason to get 7 or 8 would be the new directX for games (although most new games on PC suck anyways so who cares).

 

[Taipan]

The longer I look at the picture, the stranger Bill's glasses become... After a while they look like they've been painted onto the finished photo.

 

[the8thark]

I agree completely, it's nice to see that he's being perceived that way now. His interviews are a total pleasure to watch these days.

Now if only someone could transform Steve Ballmer in a similar way... but that's impossible .

I agree. Jobs and Gates were and are amazing people. And I never ever thought of Apple and MS as real competitors. More like two different companies that just happen to be doing similar things in the same IT industry.

Both Jobs and Gates are very flawed people. But they rose above their flaws to change the world. And I believe their legacies will live for many many centuries to come. The only other person in IT I can see being remembered for centuries is Johnny Ive.

And Ballmer? He's a sorry sorry case indeed. Sure Apple has Schiller. But Ballmer is way more extreme. And defo not in a good way. If you had to look at the 2 CEO's now. I think Cook is much better placed to take Apple forward then Ballmer is placed to take MS forward.

 

[HenryDJP]

There are so many examples to choose from, but i'll stick to one for now: one didn't try and escape parental responsibility, one did.

Hold on dude, are you serious? You're judging his personal life? Oh okay, I guess that means you're perfect like you've never made mistakes? Oh and I guess that means Bill Gates has never done anything in his life reprehensible? Gimme a break.

 

[vvswarup]

I always wondered if Gates had a soft spot for Apple and Jobs - at any point MS could have pulled MS Office from the Mac and essentially killed Apple. I never understood the animosity some Apple fans had toward MS and Gates....

MS could have pulled Office from the Mac and in the process, lose hundreds of millions, if not billions in revenue in the process.

 

[HenryDJP]

Why don't you leave that kind of immature analysis to yourself?

Well said!!!!

 

[chadley_chad]

I'm quite sure Steve Jobs wasn't the nicest of people to work for (or against), however had he have been alive today (and in good health), I'm sure I wouldn't be walking around with a Samsung Galaxy in my pocket (after 6 previous years iPhone ownership) .... nor thinking most of the rest of Apples range is staid and lacks the original spark it once had!!!!

 

[mazz0]

He's an icon, he will always be talked about.

I know you're right there: there's an overhead conversation between some NPCs in Deus Ex: Human Revolution (set in 2027, I think) where one asks the other "what do you think they're talking about?" (their CEO is in a discussion with another tech industry CEO) and the other replies "What did Steve Jobs and Bill Gates talk about?".

 

[partyBoy]

steve jobs is a legend

 

[JHankwitz]

I always wondered if Gates had a soft spot for Apple and Jobs - at any point MS could have pulled MS Office from the Mac and essentially killed Apple. I never understood the animosity some Apple fans had toward MS and Gates....

I don't recall there being so much animosity between them before Gates ripped off apple's GUI on a MS Office agreement technicality. It was Microsoft's Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that supported Apple's early success. Apple provided hardware and a great operating system, and Microsoft provided software to run on Apple products. Once MS got the court's OK to freely use Apples GUI to create Windows, the relationship changed drastically.

 

[vvswarup]

Almost enough to forget how ruthless Bill Gates was in Microsoft's early years...

That's already been forgotten. When everyone compares Steve Jobs to Bill Gates, they compare the Bill Gates of today, i.e. the philanthropist who heads of the Gates Foundation, to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. They conclude that Bill Gates was always a great man and Steve Jobs was just a greedy corporate megalomaniac.

The reality is that while he was CEO, Bill Gates was every bit as greedy and ruthless as Steve Jobs, if not more ruthless. It's just that people have a short memory.

 

[HenryDJP]

As if Steve was a personal friend of yours? It's a message board, people are entitled to their opinions. Just because we enjoy the products he was responsible for doesn't mean we need to deify the man.

Uh, that person you're defending didn't state an opinion, he made a blanket statement and it was of plain ignorance.

Whatever the reason, one is pure speculation. The FACT is that he's addressing the needs of others, and even if it's done for a secondary gain it's still more than what many others have done

Oh you're one of those, the person that says, "I believe only what I see and I'll look the other way even if the good was done unethically"..

 

[DisMyMac]

"Thinking about your potential mortality isn't very constructive."

Yes it is, Bill, you fool!!!

They're all Citizen Kane types, no idea what life's about.

 

[HenryDJP]

I always wondered if Gates had a soft spot for Apple and Jobs - at any point MS could have pulled MS Office from the Mac and essentially killed Apple. I never understood the animosity some Apple fans had toward MS and Gates....

I could give a long laundry list but MR doesn't have enough room on their servers.
MS didn't make Office for Mac as a favor to anyone but themselves, it was a good business decision and they are in the business to make money. I'm sorry, but rhetorically I have to question your age level in terms of youth because you're looking at this from a personal level and not a professional one. And BTW, Office was on Mac long before it was on Windows so Microsoft stood a lot to lose financially by discontinuing Office for Mac. It's enough that many of the Windows licenses are bootlegged so it's not like Office is brining in unheard of revenues where MS could easily afford to drop Mac Office.

 

[u49aa2]

Rip

 

[Glassed Silver]

This is hilarious. They are interviewing the interviewer about someone else he interviewed.

Yo dawg...

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[SpyderBite]

Met both on a few occasions while I worked at Microsoft. Both are very professional. But Gates was always more approachable. I liked that he always asked your name when shaking hands. Jobs on the other hand always seemed like he was in a hurry and couldn't be bothered at the moment. Not a slight at Steve. It was his natural demeanor. In fact, I'm much like that today. Always have a 100 things on my mind and everything else seems like a distraction.

But one thing Gates said to me during a MS retreat when he asked what my goals were guided my career for the 15 years since.. "There is nothing a cold beer can't fix. Except alcoholism of course".

 

[Baumi]

"He showed me the boat he was working on," said Gates, "and talked about how he's looking forward to being on it, even though we both knew there was a good chance that wouldn't happen."

From all I've read about the man, it seems one of Jobs' greatest talents was how he wouldn't stop aiming for something just because it was considered to be impossible. Looks like he kept up that attitude until the end...

RIP

 

[TWSS37]

It's funny you should say that because in a weird sense when I look at the Apple logo that is how I see the chunk of the Apple missing, it's Steve.

Really? Really?!

This is unhealthy.

 

[oliversl]

Steve Jobs is really missed, by the industry et all. Miss you Steve.

Haters gonna hate

 

[Baumi]

I never understood the animosity some Apple fans had toward MS and Gates....

Back in the days, not only did it look like MS stole Apple's moment of glory by saddling the World with Windows instead of MacOS, it also seemed like Microsoft would crush not just Apple but all of its competitors – sometimes by unfair means. Take the whole AARD code issue, for example.

The AARD code was a segment of obfuscated machine code that was included in several executables, including the installer and WIN.COM, in a beta release of Microsoft Windows 3.1
[...]
The AARD code ran several functional tests on the underlying DOS that succeeded on MS-DOS and PC-DOS, but resulted in an error message on competing disk operating systems such as DR-DOS.
[...]
Internal memos released by Microsoft revealed that the specific focus of these tests was DR-DOS. [...] Microsoft Senior Vice President Brad Silverberg later sent another memo, stating: "What the [user] is supposed to do is feel uncomfortable, and when he has bugs, suspect that the problem is DR-DOS and then go out to buy MS-DOS."

I'm not saying Apple would have been any better had they secured the top spot back then, though. Jobs wasn't exactly known as a gentle businessman himself, and we know the control freakery that easily happens when Apple's corporate ego is not kept in check by strong competitors.

 

[HenryDJP]

This interview would have never happened if Steve Jobs was still alive. Also Microsoft's last innovative OS was Windows XP. Vista-7-and 8 nothing special.

XP is the greatest OS ever made (imo). Only reason to get 7 or 8 would be the new directX for games (although most new games on PC suck anyways so who cares).

I agree that Vista and W7 were nothing special and W8 isn't even worthy of a mention, but how is XP the greatest OS ever made? I'm only speaking here of Windows (because it certainly wasn't as good as the Mac OS) and for XP to be considered the best Windows OS it would have to have good security and it had the WORST security. Hole after hole. In terms of operability, yeah, I guess it worked okay but that doesn't say much as Windows has never been on the top 10 of well made products but oh well.

 

[mdelvecchio]

Maybe Steve was the better business man, but Bill was always the better man.

hmm, not sure all the people gates screwed over the years would agree with you.

i can only imagine youre referring to charity work. unfortunately jobs died at a young age -- no one can say what the final outcome of his years would have been. gates had the advantage of being the richest man in the world, retired, and decades of life ahead of him.

 

[AppleMark]

I like Bill Gates (and Steve Jobs too). I think Bill is a class act, humble respectable and genuine. That was a nice interview.

Agreed.

If you respected Steve and what he has done for technology, then you have to respect Bill Gates for the same thing (and vice versa). Their visions of the future were [are] a little different, but attaining their goals often required a symbiotic approach.

Forget the corporations, forget the character flaws, dodgy deals and mistakes along the way. We needed both men, in equal measure to be where we are today.