Word comes that Steve Jobs - Apple's famous former CEO and sitting chairmain of the board - has passed away. We've known that Steve has been ill for some time, culminating in his stepping down from Apple's CEO, but you never really know when to expect the worst. Not a single AnandTech editor went through their childhood without working with an Apple II at least once, and numerous other Apple devices years later; the story of the coming of age of the personal computer and the story of Steve Jobs are often one in the same.
R.I.P. Steve Jobs, 1955-2011
Source: Apple
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KoolAidMan1 - Saturday, October 8, 2011 - link
How do you feel about Bill Gates trying to cut out Paul Allen's stake in Microsoft and oust him from the company because of his struggles with cancer? The only reason it didn't happen is because he was caught red handed discussing this with Steve Ballmer.Jobs was far from alone in this, but I haven't heard of anything this extreme or shameful.
safcman84 - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
Steve Jobs was one of best public speakers of a generation, and a fantastic CEO. My thoughts are with his family. RIP.However, "one of the great technological revolutionarys, a man who changed the world in a massive way" is just plain wrong.
How did he change the world? the iProducts? We still phone, use sms and send email now, and we did it before the iProducts were designed by Apple's design team (not Jobs himself). So unless you by profoundly changing the world, you mean the ability to easily access facebook anywhere, anytime from a phone using a dedicated App....
The Apple II ? nope, didnt profoundly change the world either.
And that is without talking about the ideas his company stole...
For Bloomberg to compare him to Einstein and Edison is insane.
Most people wont be able to tell you who invented the internal combustion engine, something which did "profoundly change the world", so Jobs has no chance of being remembered for more than a few years by the general public (unless, perhaps, you study public speaking and business).
Steve Jobs was a great CEO in a line of Great CEOs which came before him, and will come after him. Nothing more, nothing less.
KoolAidMan1 - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
"The Apple II ? nope, didnt profoundly change the world either."Not sure if serious, too young to remember, or trolling.... -_-
safcman84 - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
Maybe too young to notice the full impact (but I do remember it), so I might be wrong that account (I'm not a fan boy of any product, so happy to admit I am wrong when I'm wrong)However, even if I am wrong about Apple II impact, I think you will find it was Steve Wozniak who came up with that one and not Steve Jobs.
FunBunny2 - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
Technically, I used better desktop machines *before* the Apple II. Apple made them cheap, but Other People's Parts. Apple didn't, by any stretch of the imagination, invent the desktop computer.tipoo - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
He was no Einstein or Edison, but come on. Before he made his mark, computers were exclusively for mathematicians, computer engineers, and programmers. He made them appeal to the general population, and was at the forefront the computer revolution. Yes, the man did change the world.safcman84 - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
Steve Wozniak designed the Apple computer.So what did Jobs do, except run a successful company which has a great marketing department?
Again, he was a Great CEO and a Great public speaker. However, he, personally, did not revolutionise anything.
Einstein, he himself on his own, revolutionised physics.
Edison, personally, invented the lightbulb that revolutionised our way of living
KoolAidMan1 - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
Popularizing numerous ways to make computers more accesible and easier to use isn't worth anything of note? To do it once is enough, but the guy was involved with this for decades.If we're talking about Edison, he was actually a bit of a hack in that he (or his lab people) would come up with tons of shit and throw it out there to see what sticks. Jobs always had a purpose and a market in mind for his products.
It is also worth noting that Edison did not invent the lightbulb, he just made it commercially viable. Sounds familiar?
Dug - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
You really need to read more, especially sense it's obvious you didn't live through Apple II and Macintosh era.He changed the world in so many ways it would take weeks to explain to you what he has done.
UltimateTruth - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
You, and the rest of the Apple revisionist need to stop with BS... Since you seemed to have been around that long, you'd know how much an impact the Commodore VIC20, C64, 128, and Amiga variants made during the 80's and early 90's. Those computers had a much greater impact in many ways than Apple did at the time.