[Discuss] (OT) Steve Jobs 1955-2011

[adler at stephenadler.com (Stephen Adler)]

My next cell phone will be an openmoko

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Main_Page

With Jobs passing on, I hope even more innovation will follow.
Innovation is driven by the internet, and I'm a big believer that in the
end, free (as in freedom) and open technologies coupled with the
communications the internet has unleashed, will outlast even Jobs
legacy....

:)

On Thu, 2011-10-06 at 08:38 -0400, Kyle Leslie wrote:
> I have to agree with what Rich is saying.  Perhaps you don't like him as a
> business man but you have to remember, the business world is cut throat.  It
> is unfortunate when smaller people and companies get the shaft but every
> business head is similar to Jobs, they want THEIR product to succeed.
> Perhaps you remember Jobs because he was pretty good at this and generally
> won a lot of the battles he engaged in.  I am sure there are business people
> out their who are generally honest but I would venture to guess there are
> far less than the "Jobs" type.
> 
> He put a lot of pressure on the industry with Apple's products.  In my
> opinion if it wasn't for Jobs and Apple, we wouldn't have the competitive
> environment today.  M$ would still rule the world and be happy with a crap
> product.  Now they are revamping their entire OS.  The iPad and iPhone have
> taken over and forced other companies to push a product that isn't awful.
> 
> Likeness would say if not for Jobs it would be some other company head that
> you would be upset about.  Who knows maybe Tim will be so much worse that
> you wish Steve was back running the company.
> 
> 
> On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 11:16 PM, Rich Braun <richb at pioneer.ci.net> wrote:
> 
> > Jobs was certainly a controversial figure, and his business steamrolled a
> > lot
> > of the smaller companies whose entrepreneurial initiatives could have gone
> > farther.  But I think I will remember him for challenging his rivals.  Some
> > things that are hard to deny:
> >
> > * He showed that industrial design (form/fit/appearance) matters as much
> > now
> > as it did in the age of Metropolis (a film dating to the 1920s).
> >
> > * The process of getting the bits from the developers' fingertips onto the
> > screen of the end user was pretty much consistently /terrible/ on /all/
> > other
> > platforms until Jobs came along.  Just run it, damnit, and make it /work/.
> > Ubuntu was the first rival to really get that message.
> >
> > * Simplify, strip down, and eliminate cruft--users will show up in droves.
> >
> > * The retail store isn't dead, if you play the PR right.
> >
> > * 99% of users really don't give a crap about customizability.  They want
> > someone else to make things work. (Heads up to Linux developers:  yes, I do
> > want customizability, but if your app is going to drive any kind of
> > revenue,
> > you need to make it work first and provide customizability as a
> > barely-visible
> > option.)
> >
> > A lot of conventional wisdom got turned on its head under Steve Jobs'
> > watch,
> > especially the return engagement which brought us the iPhone and the
> > spinoffs
> > which came in rapid-fire since.
> >
> > I'm still embittered about the loss of my last data-center management job
> > which came on the heels of overwhelming demand for and lack of ability to
> > support an abrupt increase of Macintosh users at the company.  (In a few
> > months we went from about 3 Macs hidden away in a QA lab to over 2 dozen,
> > mostly on desks of the $200K/year executive class.  Apple's strategy for
> > LAN-wide support was basically to have them walk over to the CambridgeSide
> > Galleria's "Genius Bar" to fix whatever settings they hosed.  Executives
> > with
> > signature authority kept buying Macs without coordinating purchasing with
> > IT.
> > That's what I endured and really thought sucked, but had absolutely no
> > control
> > over; I'll wager Apple went from 4% to 8% of the PC industry by doing the
> > same
> > thing to a gazillion other IT departments just like mine.  Ever tried to
> > put a
> > few dozen, few hundred, few thousand Apple devices under central
> > management?
> > ;-)
> >
> > So yeah, Jobs had an impact on all our lives:  for better or for worse.  I
> > think in the end it will be for the better, because of the clear and
> > obvious
> > point that he made: The User Is Paramount.  Ignore that at your peril.
> >
> > Footnote:  City Councilor Leland Cheung unveiled a series of "Hollywood
> > Stars"
> > recognizing Jobs and 6 other engineering leaders in a Walk of Fame here in
> > Cambridge just 3 weeks ago.  Coincidentally, he showed up at a neighborhood
> > meeting I attended this evening:  I met him for the first time right at the
> > same moment Jobs' death was announced.  Like Jobs himself, Cheung is the
> > son
> > of immigrants from another country, making a new life here in America.  I
> > plan
> > to go take a look at the Jobs star tomorrow.
> >
> > -rich
> >
> >
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