Bill Gates on Steve Jobs • Hacker News Board

Re: Bill Gates on Steve Jobs

#21

Post by jleyank » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 11:14 AM UTC

JumpinJack_Cash wrote: post #15

jleyank wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Erm, what's the good/great GUI aspects that MS delivered? Apple extended/stole from Xerox - who did MS steal from other than Apple?

Windows 95 has changed everything and it was a Microsoft product, not Apple's. He said, she said about stealing ideas etc I don't care about it. The first rule in this game that forcefully push into 14 year old wanna be entrepreneurs is that ideas aren't worth anything.

Perhaps for pc’s but evolution within a single product family is to be expected. The minicomputer and workstation world had windows years before the micros did. And the research from bell labs and xerox and mit preceded that.

Re: Bill Gates on Steve Jobs

#22

Post by fragmede » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 11:42 AM UTC

dilyevsky wrote: post #19

hoKayDo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given his similar life experience Jobs could smell his own. Woz and an endless stream of actual engineers developed Apple hardware. Steve just focused on minutiae and details he cared about. He could not engineer his way out of a wet paper sack he would be too stuck on the color of the sack. Always the bike shedder, never the painter.

Why didn’t those amazing engineers develop great hardware before or after jobs?

To be fair, the Apple Vision Pro is absolutely amazing hardware. It may not quite have found product market fit, but the hardware itself is something else.

Re: Bill Gates on Steve Jobs

#23

Post by JumpinJack_Cash » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 12:14 PM UTC

jleyank wrote: post #21

JumpinJack_Cash wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 95 has changed everything and it was a Microsoft product, not Apple's. He said, she said about stealing ideas etc I don't care about it. The first rule in this game that forcefully push into 14 year old wanna be entrepreneurs is that ideas aren't worth anything.

Perhaps for pc’s but evolution within a single product family is to be expected. The minicomputer and workstation world had windows years before the micros did. And the research from bell labs and xerox and mit preceded that.

We are consumers, we don't give a damn about research.

The company which signs off the global adoption gets all the marbles

it's the doctrine and it's accepted by everybody in the history of American industry excet for Microsoft that somehow cheated its way there or it doesn't count because Steve Jobs says so or Xerox says so , it's ridiculous honestly.

Revisionism at its best

Re: Bill Gates on Steve Jobs

#24

Post by dilyevsky » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

fragmede wrote: post #22

dilyevsky wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why didn’t those amazing engineers develop great hardware before or after jobs?

To be fair, the Apple Vision Pro is absolutely amazing hardware. It may not quite have found product market fit, but the hardware itself is something else.

Don't get me wrong - AVP, Airpods, M-series chips are all amazing. Nothing as revolutionary as the first iphone, ipod, or an Apple II