Re: Pirates of Silicon Valley

[Gabriel Morales <Togega@Concentric.net>]

(In order to promote some further discussion, I have cross-posted this
message to comp.sys.mac.misc)

Cturley2 wrote:
> 
> The message that I got from the movie gave me the clear impression that both
> Jobs and Gates are two of the most skilled, cold-hearted, cutthroat pirates
> that have ever existed within the computer industry.  They seem to both be
> opportunistic elitist of the highest degree tat would cut any persons throat to
> obtain what THEY want, regardless of who gets hurt in the process.

I write:

Hey, Tom.

	Yes, but Jobs cares about there being quality and craftsmanship in his
(or Apple's) work; about being an "artist", Gates only cares about $$.
Jobs cares about culture, Gates cares about $$. Like Jobs said "We have
better stuff.", Gates, "You don't get it- That doesn't matter".
Microsoft (and Gates, of course) only cares about $$, not quality,
craftsmanship or originality, and thus has never created anything
original or positively contributed to the computer industry.

	Now, Steve Jobs was many times cruel, selfish and practically
"cold-hearted"; he was not a pleasant man to work under at times and
what he did to that interviewee (which I had read about) is a perfect
example of this, but ironically, this man- the man with the vision- was
the one most dangerous to it.

> Two parts in the movie that really told me a great deal about Jobs was the part
> in Jobs garage when he and Woz were discussing who was employee #1 at Apple.
> Jobs declared himself to be employee #1 at Apple, after Woz stated that he was
> the #1 employee.  Woz said whatever, then Jobs expressing the desire to be the
> FIRST ranked employee at Apple went on to say - OK...Woz your the #1 employee
> at Apple and I'm #0 employee at Apple.

Jobs was ambitious; he wanted to be in control. Woz has seemingly always
lacked this- Woz was the genius and kind heart behind Apple, whose
selfless acts helped many. As many faults as Jobs has, it is almost
certain that there would not have been an Apple Computer without him.-
Woz would have probably not gone much further with his ingenious little
computer (the Apple I). (Vica-versa is also true, of course.)

> And, that's the way it went.  To this day, Woz is the #1 employee at Apple,
> which seems to be just fine with Woz.  My conclusion:  Zero has no value and
> one does.

I think at Apple, zero does indeed have value that should not be
discounted. Hey, didn't Woz quit?! On another note- did anyone hear Jobs
say "Apple Computers"? Hasn't it always been "Apple Computer, Inc."?

> But, I doubt that Bill Gates [is]... afraid of the iMac. I also heard rumors
> that... Bill gates actually own[s] an iMac...

Oh- but he should be, for his "mighty" empire is doomed to fall someday
not far away... Now, about him owning an iMac...
 
> In my conclusion from viewing the movie...I don't smell a private agenda,
> other than perhaps a private agenda between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates
> to mutually benefit both of their personal desires.

Perhaps not, but I did think they left out some very important
developments in recent times that have brought Apple back to
profitability and true innovation. Also, about Jobs, he has matured for
the better over the years, I believe, and should not be mistaken for the
Jobs back then. Private agenda between Jobs and Gates- well that remains
to be seen...

Gabriel Morales
-- 
Come visit my domain at http://www.concentric.net/~Togega/.