Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Was anyone working at Apple during Steve Jobs' return in 1997?

news.ycombinator.com

1–10 of 322 posts

Ask HN: Was anyone working at Apple during Steve Jobs' return in 1997?

#1
The famous story is that Apple was nosediving under the current CEO and that Apple's acquisition of NeXT (and bringing Steve Jobs back as CEO) revitalised the company.

I read about drastic staff / product cuts and re-focusing on the company, however that was always told from the outside.

Was someone working at Apple during that transition and has any interesting stories / can share their experience?

Re: Ask HN: Was anyone working at Apple during Steve Jobs' return in 1997?

#3
If you've not seen it, this video of Job' informal talk with WWDC attendees in 1997 is a classic. At the time he was only consulting at Apple after the Next acquisition and Gil Amelio was still at the helm. He talks quite a bit about how the company is re-engineering itself and refocusing on a narrower set of products, and deals constructively with some pretty hardball questions from the audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyd0tP0SK6o&t=1086s

Re: Ask HN: Was anyone working at Apple during Steve Jobs' return in 1997?

#5
post #3

If you've not seen it, this video of Job' informal talk with WWDC attendees in 1997 is a classic. At the time he was only consulting at Apple after the Next acquisition and Gil Amelio was still at the helm. He talks quite a bit about how the company is re-engineering itself and refocusing on a narrower set of products, and deals constructively with some pretty hardball questions from the audience. https://www.youtube…

Gil Amelio and Ellen Hancock were I think some of the most underrated management that Apple had, they at least had a better clue about where the company needed to go.

Also, I think Michael Spindler did more damage to Apple than Scully did.

Re: Ask HN: Was anyone working at Apple during Steve Jobs' return in 1997?

#6
post #3

If you've not seen it, this video of Job' informal talk with WWDC attendees in 1997 is a classic. At the time he was only consulting at Apple after the Next acquisition and Gil Amelio was still at the helm. He talks quite a bit about how the company is re-engineering itself and refocusing on a narrower set of products, and deals constructively with some pretty hardball questions from the audience. https://www.youtube…

Anybody familiar with the Improv / Quantrix spreadsheets that he claims is 5X - 10X more productive than Excel? What's so special about them? Has that functionality found its way into Excel at this point?

Re: Ask HN: Was anyone working at Apple during Steve Jobs' return in 1997?

#7
post #6
post #3

If you've not seen it, this video of Job' informal talk with WWDC attendees in 1997 is a classic. At the time he was only consulting at Apple after the Next acquisition and Gil Amelio was still at the helm. He talks quite a bit about how the company is re-engineering itself and refocusing on a narrower set of products, and deals constructively with some pretty hardball questions from the audience. https://www.youtube…

Anybody familiar with the Improv / Quantrix spreadsheets that he claims is 5X - 10X more productive than Excel? What's so special about them? Has that functionality found its way into Excel at this point?

https://instadeq.com/blog/posts/no-code-history-lotus-improv...

Re: Ask HN: Was anyone working at Apple during Steve Jobs' return in 1997?

#8

I wasn’t working there but when Jobs came back, Gil Amelio was at the helm, not Sculley. Sculley was long gone by that time. Also worth noting is that Amelio had also cancelled a bunch of projects to cut down costs but Jobs’ was more drastic.

Thanks for clarifying, changed the original post

Re: Ask HN: Was anyone working at Apple during Steve Jobs' return in 1997?

#9
I didn't work there, but for all you old-timers, I attended the Brass Ring job fair at the Santa Clara convention center, early 1997 before Jobs rejoined.

I distinctly remember the Apple recruitment booth was empty, vs all of the high-activity booths around them. I remember it vividly because it was sad seeing how far they had fallen, people weren't interested in even talking to the recruiter.

Imagine getting a job at Apple in 1997 and never selling a share. I know some people that have been at Apple for 12+ years and are planning on retiring next year, they are multi-multi-millionaires just from regular stock grants.

Re: Ask HN: Was anyone working at Apple during Steve Jobs' return in 1997?

#10
I'm really thankful I had a chance to work at 1 Infinite Loop during that time. I worked with other Developer Relations folks in IL3, with near-daily trips to IL2 to either meet with folks on the QuickTime team or just hang out. Occasionally I'd get early glimpses at things like QTi and HyperCard 3.

I vividly recall the day Steve introduced the iMac in the Infinite Loop quad. If I had to pick a day that telegraphed Apple's future fortunes, it would be that day. Rhapsody's potential was compelling, but as Macintosh OS it was still pretty Crapsody at the time. The iMac was a Real Thing — as friendly as computers get, that only Apple could've created and sold.

Post reply on HN