Jobs vs. Gates

In the development of the personal computer, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were like a twin star system, which promoted the development of the personal computer in the 1980s and 1990s. Interestingly, the two were on opposite sides long before Jobs died. Jobs believed that Gates was narrow-minded, lacking taste and style, imagination and creativity, and that the Windows system he created was a poorly designed plagiarism product; Gates believed that Jobs did not understand technology at all, just a salesman, eccentric, no-nonsense. present. Share your story today.

dispute

In November 1983, Gates announced that Microsoft planned to develop a new operating system with a graphical interface for IBM's PC, with windows, icons and mouse-based system controls, and called it "Windows". When Jobs found out, he was very angry. In the past few years, Jobs often invited Gates to Apple to demonstrate Apple's operating system for Gates, and wanted to persuade Gates to develop office software such as Word with a graphical interface for Apple. Later, after Gates decided that Microsoft would develop for the Apple system, he often went to Apple. Andy, an Apple engineer at the time, noticed that Microsoft's engineers had told Jobs the concern that Microsoft might clone Apple's operating system when they asked for details about Apple's operating system. So Jobs signed a contract with Microsoft, requiring Microsoft to agree to not develop an operating system with a graphical interface for other companies until the Apple Computer was released, in January 1983, a year later. Sadly, Apple computers weren't released until 1984. Jobs knew there was a limit to what he could do because the contract at the time had expired. But people still called Gates to Apple. Facing the rather calm Gates, Jobs broke out: "You are plagiarism. I believed you in the past, but now you are stealing from us." Gates at that time, sitting coldly, looked at Jobs, and used In his usual squeaky voice, he calmly uttered what would become a classic rebuttal line in Silicon Valley—“We all have a rich neighbor named Xerox, and when I broke into their house to steal the TV , found out that you had stolen it." Later, even 30 years later, Jobs could not contain his anger and would accuse Gates of plagiarism and that Gates had no shame. Faced with such two figures in the personal computer field, it is difficult to make a definite evaluation. But it should be said that Steve Jobs really commercialized the computer graphical interface, and the elegance of his system is still unmatched by Windows after many years. Here are the Xerox Star, Apple, and the graphical interface of Windows 1.0.

This is the Xerox Star user interface.

The graphical interface when the Mac was released in 1984.

The following figure shows the graphical interface of Windows 1.0 released on November 20, 1985. At that time, Windows application windows could not overlap and could only be tiled.

same and different

Both Jobs and Gates were born in 1955, and both dropped out of college to start their own businesses. Gates founded Microsoft in 1975, and Jobs founded Apple less than a year later. To date, the two are still the two most valuable technology companies in the world.

There's no denying that Jobs enjoyed working with people like him. Back then, Wozniak Steve and Jobs had a lot in common, so they came together and were later teased as Steve and his wife. Later, when Apple was established, Jobs looked for an operating partner for the company and invited John Sculley, then vice president of PepsiCo, to join Apple. The latter also took a fancy to the many similarities between the young Jobs and himself. Sculley wrote in his memo:

… Sometimes I feel as if I’m watching a movie with Jobs playing me. The similarity between us is so incredible,…

But the cooperation between Jobs and Gates is not based on the similarity between the two. The two have very different backgrounds, personalities, and ways of running the company. Jobs said in his speech that he himself was abandoned twice. The first time was my own biological parents. The second time was when the adoptive parents who were about to adopt them temporarily gave up after learning that a boy was born. The orphanage called the candidate adoptive parents in the middle of the night. Jobs' adoptive parents were families who did not go to college, and they were only accepted after they promised to fund Jobs to finish college. Jobs has always been a rebellious man and has always pursued spirituality spiritually.

Gates' father is a well-known lawyer in Seattle, and his mother, Mary Gates, is a multi-tasking and highly respected businesswoman. Gates is a tech geek at the best local private school. But Gates was never a Jobs-like rebel, a hippie, a spiritual seeker, a spiritual seeker, or a counterculture. He didn't do a "blue box" to steal phone lines, but wrote a schedule for the school. With the help of this program, Gates was able to take the same classes as the girl he wanted; he also wrote a vehicle counting program for the local traffic authority. Soon after entering Harvard, Gates decided to drop out, not to pursue enlightenment with an Indian spiritual master, but to start his own software company.

Personally, both Jobs and Gates can act rudely. But Gates' rudeness is usually not directed at individuals, and more out of a deep understanding of technology than emotional insensitivity. Jobs would stare at each other with scorching eyes, and young Gates was sometimes unable to make eye contact, but he was very human.

Plagiarism vs. borrowing

The differences in the personalities of Jobs and Gates have also more or less affected the differences between the companies they founded. Of course, Jobs' influence on Apple went deeper. Unlike Jobs, Gates understands computer programming and is more of an engineer. He is more pragmatic, more principled, and has strong analytical processing skills. Microsoft, founded by Gates, is also good at doing one thing first, and then gradually improving it. Before Windows 1.0 came out. In order to ease the dispute with Jobs about plagiarism, Gates invited Jobs to see the Demo. After reading it, Jobs did not say plagiarism, but said,

"Oh, it's actually a piece of shit. It's actually a piece of shit."

But Microsoft has optimized and improved Windows step by step until it is today. However, it is easier for engineers to learn from others, and it is often difficult to get rid of the suspicion of plagiarism of originality-driven companies. The innovation of GUI user interface is a key part of personal computing, but unfortunately, the intellectual property rights in interface design are difficult to obtain legal protection. In addition to the Macintosh in 1984, later in 2006, when Jobs released Mac OS X Leopard, he used a lot of space to list the plagiarism of Apple's interface in Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista. From an engineer's point of view, borrowing from a mature solution is the most effective strategy. But often the boundaries between plagiarism and borrowing are difficult to grasp. In 2005, Steve Jobs' speech on "Stay hungry stay foolish" at Stanford University's student graduation ceremony once again mentioned the plagiarism of Windows. He said that it is because of Apple's innovation that today not only Apple computer users, but also Microsoft computer users can use an easier-to-use computer interface. Looking at this sentence today, I am deeply convinced. If coupled with the interface innovation and leadership of Steve Jobs on the iPhone in the later period, we have to admit that without Steve Jobs, your mobile phones today may be completely different, but they will not be as easy to use as today. A person who has never used an iPhone at all also benefits from the innovation of the iPhone.

Of course, Gates, as a successful person, definitely has his own advantages. After seeing Steve Jobs' Apple computer, Gates also believes that the graphical interface is the future trend. Unlike Jobs' absolute control of software and hardware, Gates opened up Windows compatibility, and all hardware can run Windows systems. Gates is keen to see that software will be a major trend in the future. Microsoft, led by Gates, has made huge returns from working with Apple to develop Word and Excel for Apple. By 1986, Microsoft was valued at $1 billion. The engineer's thinking, it is easier to achieve success from 100 to 10,000, because he strips away personal influence, can effectively scale and achieve collaboration. To be such an engineer, you don't need a sense of mission, you can do the right thing at the right time.

Conversely, like Steve Jobs, he is more intuitive, more romantic, and has a higher talent for technical practicality, design joy and interface friendliness. Jobs' fervent pursuit of perfection made him very demanding, and his management depended mainly on his charisma and overflowing passion. Jobs also paid close attention to the title bars on windows and documents during the design of the Mac. Atkinson and Kare, who were in charge of the design at the time, revised it over and over again, and Jobs was not satisfied until after more than 20 versions. They complained that Jobs made them spend too much time on the details instead of the more important things. Jobs yelled:

"Can you imagine seeing the title bar every day? It's not trivial, it's something that has to be done right."

If you look closely at the title bar in Figure 2 today, you can see that this is something designed and difficult to improve. Jobs' keen intuition enabled him to see how a thing might look in the future. More importantly, he has a sense of mission. Today we look at the first iPhone released in 2007. Compared with the recent iPhone 13, they have no revolutionary changes in interaction, interface, etc., and we can still see their similarities. For Jobs, he was good at making breakthroughs from 0 to 100. After the Apple Computer was released, a reporter asked him, did you do market research before launching the Apple Computer? People don't know what they need, Jobs said. Yes, Jobs did something that was not on the market before. People didn't know they wanted these things until the innovative designs of the Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. But when these things were introduced, the world changed because of them.

Summarize

Jobs was a man with a sense of purpose. He knew his difference, and he knew that he was here to change the world. His intuition, along with his passion, contributed to his success. When he makes every product, he does it with a sense of mission to impact the world with that product. A great artist whose work is only recognized after his death. But at the time of creation, these artists knew it was going to be a world-changing creation. Great people have a sense of mission and are willing to sacrifice, give and wait. Compared with an engineer who can constantly improve, a person with a rebellious spirit like Steve Jobs is more likely to revolutionize the world. But from the perspective of success defined by the secular, a person who can learn from each other's strengths and reach 100 to 10,000 is more likely to succeed. People who are as rebellious as Jobs will fail in the majority, but it is these creators who are not satisfied with the status quo and are changing the world.

Jobs, who returned to Apple from 1999 to 2002, launched a new advertisement: Think Different. Originally, Jobs was going to read the advertisement for the advertisement. He was worried that people would think that the advertisement was about Jobs, not Apple, so he asked people to narrate the video. As the end of this article, I pay tribute to those "madmen" who changed the world.

Here's to the crazy ones.

Cheers to those crazy people.

The misfits.

Misfits.

The rebels.

rebel.

The troublemakers.

Troublemaker.

The round pegs in the square holes.

Round nails in square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

Those who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules.

they don't like rules,

And they have no respect for the status quo.

And they don't respect the status quo.

You can praise them, quote them, disagree with them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

You can praise them, quote them, disagree with them, disbelieve them, praise or denigrate them.

About the only thing that you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things.

The only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things.

They invent. They imagine. They heal.

They invent. they imagine. They heal.

They explore. They create. They inspire.

They explore. They create. They are inspiring.

They push the human race forward.

They push humanity forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?

Otherwise, how can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?

Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written?

Or sit there quietly and hear a song that was never written?

Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

Or staring at a red planet and seeing a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

We make tools for these people.

While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

While some may think they are crazy people, what we see is genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who change the world.