Steve Jobs
Well, I do feel kind of bad for leaving this so long, but I’ve revised this several times already before posting it, and it’ll probably get edited a bit after it does finally go live.
Steve Jobs was a visionary without whom the computer industry would not look anything like it does today. I’m willing to bet that most people reading this own an Apple device of one flavour or another, be it an iPadPodPhone or a MacBook of some revision. His company engineered the biggest, and arguably best, change in the music industry by making digital music easily available world-wide.
Yes, he may not have single-handedly bought about these things, but his enthusiasm, charisma, and love for the work that Apple did and will hopefully continue to do long into the future really did make people think different.
So, the opposing tributes of Apple and Richard Stallman to a man who literally changed the way we work with computers show both the best and worst of people in two short messages.
I must admit, I was shocked when I read that post on RMS’s website. This is a man who is the figurehead of an organisation which exists to convince people to switch to using ‘free’ software, but seems to be doing more harm than good to the cause.
I am not glad that Steve Jobs is dead. I am most certainly not glad that he is gone either, as his company produces software without which I would not be able to pursue one of my most-loved hobbies - producing music. That RMS thinks the world is better with out Steve Jobs says more about how RMS is failing where Steve succeeded - in his ability to convince people to turn to his way of thinking.
Steve Jobs and his company changed an industry with a small, inexpensive device that anyone can own.
RMS, on the other hand, is giving his organisation and his cause a bad name.
It’s amazing how charisma and personality can make such a difference between the success and failure of a project.
That said, Jobs’s management style had a much darker side, which Gawker talks about quite well here: http://gawker.com/5847344/what-everyone-is-too-polite-to-say-about-steve-jobs
It’s a well-known fact that Apple has a department known internally as the Gestapo. I can understand the reasons for its existence - if you’re investing billions into a project, you don’t want your competitors buying the specs from one of your employees - but I must question their methods, and I do find myself asking whether this approach is this the result of lawyers and legal wranglings, or if it was a conscious decision made by Jobs himself?
Leave a Reply