R.I.P. Steve Jobs

[deanjo]

If IBM had there way home computers would be something more like what your furnace or water heater is. A centrally located computer that controls all the electronics in your home. Fat clients would never have even happend if apple hadnt released the apple ii.

In many ways IBMs ideology may have been better, but upgradeability would have suffered. The cost of these central home computers would have made the pace of innovation slower.

EDIT: lets give the other steve some credit too. woz was the brains that made it possible.

Absolutely Woz deserves credit, never said he didn't, as do many other pioneers of the industry. IBM however had zero interest at the time at the home market. Even the first IBM PC was aimed at business and it wasn't really until the IBM PC jr that they started targeting the home market for anything. Steve Jobs however saw the potential of a computer being marketed to the average man, not a techie, not a home brew hacker, not a science major, etc. Just the average person. Ya there was the Tandy Trash 80's at the time targeted at small business (anybody remember the Tandy Computer stores?) and the Vic/C64/PET but those were seen more as gaming platforms then anything else. Steve however did something none of them did, he marketed to the educational systems (and in the Jobs 80's years they dominated that market) as well at the same times as businesses (VisiCalc) and the home market. I don't think IBM would have would have even remotely thought of catering to a central home based system. At the time it the technology just wasn't there to be had yet, even p2p networking didn't really catch on until the 90's.

[duby229]

Opinions vary of course, but I dont think fat clients would have been anything like they turned out to be if apple hadnt gotten the market penetration that they did. The ONLY reason IBM released the XT was because of the apple ii.

IBM had made it obviously clear that they intended to make home based mini computers. They just didnt get to in time to make their ideology pervasive. Apple did. There were other contenders, but they were almost exclusively toys. It wasnt until the apple ii that fat clients started showing up in schools and businesses.Prior to that computing was almost exclusively the domain of very expensive mini computers. Due to the cost IBM had made it a stated goal to bring the cost of mini computers down low enough that they could be affordable enough to put in a home to interface with other home electronics.

EDIT: Apple didnt have any other products of the time, the apple ii was the first viable product that they released. Based based on the success of that product apple started marketing the lisa which was by all accounts a failure. It wasnt until the macintosh was released that apple really dropped support for the apple ii, and even then it could be argued that xerox had more control over apple then IBM did.

[Luke_Wolf]

If IBM had there way home computers would be something more like what your furnace or water heater is. A centrally located computer that controls all the electronics in your home. Fat clients would never have even happend if apple hadnt released the apple ii.

In many ways IBMs ideology may have been better, but upgradeability would have suffered. The cost of these central home computers would have made the pace of innovation slower.

EDIT: lets give the other steve some credit too. woz was the brains that made it possible.

Sure lets just forget Commodore, Atari, Tandy and all of those others that were in the market. No It was clearly Just Apple and IBM/Microsoft... And Actually I'm pretty sure that the Apple II was a product of IBM given that IBM controlled Apple during that time period and the Apple II was vastly different from any of Apple's other products of the time, and was killed on Job's request.

[Del_]

Desktops would have come without Apple or Microsoft, it was a natural evolution from the Commodore64 and later Amiga. Steve Jobs convinced the world that a closed model is superior. For that I cannot forgive him.

[radiomist]

Welcome Steve: this is the place assigned for all eternity. I myself will see to install "Windows Vista" for you.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eXJMWMwpU9...1600/Steve.jpg

[PsynoKhi0]

Unfitting and untimely death for a definitely influencial person.
And that's coming from someone who hates Apple's walled-garden approach to products - and has been hit by it.
I'm still impressed by what he achieved regardless of how he did it.

[duby229]

Ya I am sure, when every large corporation scoffed at the idea of a "personal computer" he had the vision to press on and make it a commercial product, which later inspired IBM to come up with their personal computer after seeing that there was a market beyond hobbyists. Bill and MS played a huge role as well, without a doubt but it was Steve that got the ball rolling and took it beyond speculations and put it out to practice.

If IBM had there way home computers would be something more like what your furnace or water heater is. A centrally located computer that controls all the electronics in your home. Fat clients would never have even happend if apple hadnt released the apple ii.

In many ways IBMs ideology may have been better, but upgradeability would have suffered. The cost of these central home computers would have made the pace of innovation slower.

EDIT: lets give the other steve some credit too. woz was the brains that made it possible.

[mcgreg]

Honestly, as a man I kind of feel pity for him. Nobody deserves to die too early.
But for me he's simply a man. Nothing special. I dont feel any more pity for him than for anybody else.

I find it scary to see people to see people call other idiots, stupid, ignorant, terrible, childish, and almost wishing others to be dead just because they have a different opinion. This is indeed "fanboizm"

[Hephasteus]

I never liked him. Whenever I hear "Steve Jobs" or "Bill Gates", I think of "assholes".

I also don't like people who start saying nice things about someone just because he's dead.

Ya it's not like any migrant chinese or mexican workers are going to be any less miserable this week.
Steve jobs is a religious icon sympathy magician. Nothing more nothing less.
Super terrific, magical, incredible.

The problem is they kept trying to make him a monopoly. When all he could do is cannabilize his own fan base over and over and over. When people die you change connections. It involves the transmutation of all the lifetimes connections. So his fan base will probably be as deeply in love him as when he was promising them eternal bliss 400 years ago as some full of shit preacher. Problem is the more sympathy he gathers into the apple group the less tolerable they become to outsiders.

It's like justin beiber. People wish he was dead even though he's a child.

But the self importance knows no bounds. Remember the royal wedding was supposed to crash the internet. When so few people cared. But everybody wants to talk about steve jobs. All I can say is freaking took long enough.

[89c51]

the death of a talented salesman and businessman

not many have managed to create such a huge herd of sheep i think