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Edited on Thu Oct-06-11 02:29 AM by Nederland
A few hours ago I learned that Steve Jobs was dead. I was using my laptop to check email and catch up on the news, and my daughter was sitting on the coach reading. I read several different articles recounting his life before coming across one page that consisted solely of a series of quotes by the man placed on top of pictures taken from various points in his life. I liked some of the quotes, so I asked my daughter (who is eight) to come over and read some with me. Fairly quickly she wanted an explanation of who this guy was, and why I was reading about him. As a computer programmer, it has always been difficult for me to explain to her what exactly I do for a living, so I saw this as an opportunity to try once more. For her, and perhaps many people, it is hard to understand the difference between those who use computers, which today is practically everyone, and those that program computers. As I started to explain to her Steve Jobs' pivotal role in making computers become things that were actually useful, I was overcome by emotion and choked a bit on my words. This was as surprising to my daughter, because I'm not exactly the sappy sort that usually has that sort of reaction. It was also surprising to me for a rather different reason.
I never really liked Steve Jobs.
I would not go so far as to say I held hatred for the man, but strong dislike is a fair description. For me, and I would guess many of the computer programmers my age, the way that Steve Jobs and by extension Apple viewed the industry was not only frustrating but borderline offensive. The easiest way to explain this is with a comparison. The very first Mac that came out required a special set of tools to open--tools that Apple did not even sell. By contrast, opening up an IBM PC to take a peek inside required a standard Allen wrench.
From the very beginning, everything about Apple Computer was about control. Control over the hardware, control over the software. Information and manuals about how to program the machine (really program the machine, not do trivial tasks in BASIC) were often incomplete and difficult to come by. The standard tools needed to do programming on an Apple machine (compilers, editors etc.) were expensive. If you were an independent software company, everything screamed go away. Apple simply did not want you to write software for their machines unless you were certified, trained, and indoctrinated into the Apple way of doing things. As any one of the many biographies of Steve Jobs will tell, this desire for tightfisted control over absolutely everything came from the very top.
For those of us in the industry, the classic "1984" commercial in which Apple compared IBM to Big Brother was a complete joke. IBM maintained far less control over its products and customers than Apple did, a fact that enabled the clone market to thrive and in the end forced IBM to stop making the very machines they invented. The fact that Apple somehow convinced the entire world that it was the choice of freedom loving hipsters everywhere is a testament to the power of a well funded ad campaign to contradict reality. The fact that so many Democrats identify with a company whose CEO was a tyrannical megalomaniac with a hostile view toward charities and unions has always been a mystery to me.
And yet I cannot help but admire the sheer genius that was Steve Jobs.
Perhaps that genius of vision required the tyrannical methods the man subjected his employees to. Perhaps this personality is the reason that Apple never really invented anything, but somehow gets the credit for inventing everything. Perhaps the invention, the idea of how to do something different is not what is important--it is the precise and detailed execution of the idea that really matters. Perhaps the only way the world was every going to get computers that were easy to use was for this man to force every single little detail of his vision down the throats of programmers like me that had a slightly different way of looking at things. Perhaps my own animosity toward the man is due to the fact that at some level I know that people like me--people that wanted the freedom to do things a different way--stood in the way of doing things the right way.
I will never concede that the principles of freedom and diversity are expendable. However, I cannot deny that the world would be a lesser place had Steve Jobs given in and compromised his vision for the sake of those principles. From the time I was a teenager I have always had a fascination with computers and the way that I knew they could change the world for the better. My industry has lost its Mozart, and that fact that I will not see the next thing that would have come out of that talent saddens me.
Rest in Peace Steve.
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