What kind of buddhist was Steve Jobs, really?

The success is that people don't want things, you make them want them and then you sell them and then you make them feel that what you sold them wasn't quite as good as they thought. Then you can sell them the same idea that they're unfulfilled but will be completed by your latest product.

Manufacture of cutting edge gadgetry has long involved dealing in intoxicants and people; mostly manufacturing without care for harms to the environment and those living in the areas that are harmed. Dealing in people as near worthless entities to be dismissed as simply a cog in the machine that makes the machines that you sell to become a better capitalist.

So it would seem based on the story here that you've not a strong starting point. Perhaps he was a deist/agnostic/atheist/apatheist I don't know or particularly care.

As to your second assertion, how is it relevant to peoples regard for the devices/software he was party to? How is that line of enquiry pertinent to HN?

Guinness made a business selling beers to people who covet them.

Marlboro made a business selling cigarettes to people who covet them.

Smith and Wesson made a business selling guns to people who covet them.

No one needs an iPhone. No one needs a beer, or a cigarette, or a gun. People want them, and some people covet them.

You're not doing harm when you're selling a gun to a farmer who want to stop coyotes killing his hens. You're not doing harm when you sell a smartphone to a businessman to make his life and job easier, or more productive. You aren't doing harm selling a beer to a guy who drinks every other saturday night, and not when the kids are out and you might have to drive. You aren't doing harm when you sell a cigar to a guy who smokes one every new years.

You are doing harm when you sell a iphone or an ipod to someone living in poverty, because they don't want to look different from their coworkers or friends. You are doing harm when you sell a gun to an 18 year old in Detroit who's going to use it to rob a convenience store. You are doing harm when you sell a pack of cigarettes to a chain smoker. You are doing harm when you sell a bottle of vodka to an alcoholic.

It's easy to say Steve Jobs is 'evil' because he made people covet iPhones. But I don't covet iPhones, or iPods. I think he marketed them excellent, but he didn't make me buy one when I couldn't/shouldn't or didn't want to. I drink two beers maybe one night in a month. I've gone through half a pack of cigarillo's in a year and a half.

I don't blame tobacco companies because smokers wan't to smoke. I don't blame distilleries because alcoholics want to drink. I don't blame Blizzard because Warcrafters want to WoW. Just like I don't blame Gillette because people want to shave every morning.

If you covet something just because someone marketed it, then you've got something really wrong with you.

as the character was not the most loved one among his employees, competitors etc. , needed some improvements

The origin of Zen comes from greater vehicle Buddhism. In Buddhism, we have two main derivatives: greater vehicle Buddhism and small vehicle Buddhism.

Small vehicle Buddhism devotedly focuses on what Buddha done to reach nilvana. So, they execute tough ascetic training in shrines.

But, as we know, not everyone can execute such training because of many reasons. So, greater vehicle Buddhism was born. And Zen was established in China by indian Buhddist, Daruma because it was heretical in India. After Confucianism became major religion in China, Japan was the successor of Zen. This is the history.

This story is pertially closed to the origin of Christianity.

Zen is the practice everyone can do. Controlling anger, relieving oneself from anxiety, and exploring answers inside, not outside. That's all. The meditation is one of the methods. We can do it everywhere.

One of the key concept in Buddhism is "changing ever". Everything is unstable.

And, I realize that one of the Jobs's greatest management philosophy is to release his past. This philosophy is very closed the above concept in Buddhism. As we get old, we easily stick to our past achievement. But, it doesn't mean anything, even will be bottleneck for us to step forward simply because everything changes, which also means everything is imperfect.

I think this is why Jobs used to said "the death is the great invention" because we are forced to step forward by death.

I think it's not about religious thing, it's about philosophy every one should have.

For me, it's not important whether Jobs is a kind of Buhddhist or not. He taught us "to release past". That's a most important thing.