When the Macintosh came out when I was in high school, I vividly remember being introduced to it in class… my first impressions were not very positive. It has a small MONOCHROME monitor? No color graphics? Seriously?? How do you open it up to expand this thing? You can’t?

But the clincher came when I was seated in class right to one of the stuck-up cheerleaders, who beforehand would have nothing to do with a computer, as they were for “nerds” and “geeks”.  (BTW, being considered a “nerd” or “geek” in 1986 was NOT cool.).  The teacher instructed us to use the mouse and to point and click to open a file. When I looked over, I saw that the cheerleader had of course successfully opened the file, and had a smug, satisfied look on her cute face like “Look at ME, I can work a COMPUTER!”

It was at that moment that I formed the conclusion…I hate, hate HATE the Macintosh. It is the computer for DUMB people!

A few years later, a computer that was years ahead of its time emerged- the Commodore Amiga. I saved what I could and bought one as soon as possible. This was cutting edge technology, and I loved it, but always wondered where the hell was Commodore Business Machines in supporting and promoting it. Of course, in a few years CBM declared bankruptcy.

Looking back from 2011, it is evident that only having the best technology wasn’t good enough…what CBM needed was a visionary to focus, refine and guide it. Someone like… well, Steve Jobs.Also in defense of him, of course the GUI had to happen sooner or later, and Apple was the one to introduce it.   And finally, PC users like myself can thank Apple for putting the competitive pressure on Microsoft to make Windows a “pretty good” experience.

Also, you realize Castle Wolfenstein was an Apple ][ game originally? We had 4 huge boxes of pirated floppies for Apple ][ games... man, I think it wasn't until I started getting free and cheap games on iOS that I ever had as many games again as we had back in those early days.

My parents bought an Apple ][+ as soon as they were available. Our local elementary school had shut down and the city wanted to bus us miles away to a rough neighborhood school... so they decided to try the home schooling thing. I was 4 or 5 I think, my siblings were older. The ][+ and the edu software on it was great, but trying to time share it between 3 kids and 1 parent (my dad was keyboard averse) proved impossible. They bought 3 more Apple ][e 's, so we each had our own to work with, and that's kinda how I grew up.

(Side note: Early on with the ][+, it had a problem with an add-on memory card... my parents decided to just drive it up to Apple HQ in Cupertino and start banging on doors until someone could take a look at it. After talking to a few puzzled receptionists, we were directed to drive around the back of the building. A door opened up, and a very odd-looking guy with a very unfortunate haircut picked up the CPU out of our trunk and carried it just inside the door to an electronics bench and started pulling it apart while we all stood around and watched. "Ah," he said "Some of these boards don't fit perfectly in the slot and so there are errors. It'll take a minute to fix it." He pulled out a piece of sandpaper and sanded down a minute amount off the edge of the card. After fitting it back in and booting it up, he pronounced it fixed and we left. Many years later when I was head of the Mac user group, I related this story to an early Apple employee and he pointed out that the funny-looking guy was probably Burrell Smith.)

When the Mac came out, my mom almost bought one immediately, but held off until the 512k came out. Then there was the Mac Plus (20mb external SCSI HD!), the first Mac that could actually accomplish real work. I got an Apple IIgs that same year, but the die was cast: Macs were the future. My first bit of hardware teching was hauling the Plus down to the Mac User group meeting where someone showed me how to upgrade to 4MB RAM. (!!) We eventually upgraded to a Mac IIx (Color! Multitasking!), then IIfx. About the time of the IIx, occasional teching for money had turned into real design work for me, and I realized that’s what I wanted to do with my life. I was 14. I got involved with the local Mac User Group… at its peak we had 200+ people showing up for monthly meetings, and 16-32 page newsletters going out every month as a 501c3 nonprofit.

I eventually went to college, moved out, and starting buying Macs with my own cash: PowerMac 6100, 8500, MDD G4, white iBook…

Since then my Macs have all been at work, as after school I went into advertising… more Macs… then publishing… more Macs… and as I type this on a 27″ iMac as GM of a small publishing company, I reflect that my life would be very, very different if a couple guys both named Steve hadn’t decided to do something crazy and start building a computer that a normal person could just buy, plug in and use.

Here’s to The Rest Of Us.

Here’s to Steve.

Thanks. For everything.

As usual, the people who don’t “get it” are clearly PC users.

Many PC users don’t remember what “using a computer” meant before Apple pushed the Graphic User Interface into the market (and Windows copied it). When I was a kid the ability to “use a computer” meant you were some kind of code geek, not someone who could point and click something on a desktop. Computers are so user-friendly now that admitting you don’t know how to use one is to invite scorn or pity. Remember when McCain said he didn’t use a computer? It made him look like an out-of-touch fossil.

A lot of the things we take for granted in any halfway decent system- a GUI, mouse, variable width typefaces, etc. all seem inevitable now. Maybe if Jobs hadn’t brought them to the market someone else would have… but they didn’t. He did. That’s why Jobs’ contributions are worth remembering even if you buy competitors’ products.

Yesterday, Fred Shuttlesworth died.Nobody noticed.

There were other distractions.

Bit of a straw-man, really.

Driving home from work the other day I was listening to All Things Considered, and they broadcast a very long, detailed tribute to Shettlesworrh. And as far as I can remember, I didn’t hear any mention of Jobs on the drive.

So I’m not really sure who the “nobody” is. Maybe your freinds didn’t notice, but rest assured that many, many people did.

He wanted a PDA handheld device.  Had drawings of it and many discussions of it for many years, starting in the late 80′s.  He saw it through from vision to production, incarnated in various forms: from Newton to the iPods, to the iPhone, to the iPad… and who the hell knows what’s next.

Not only the devices themselves, but the assemblage and overall management of the teams that made them.  Starting with his work with Woz, through all the good years and bad years, to NeXT, and back to Apple, he shepherded the creation of amazing tools.  Could he solder a chip?  Probably not.  But did he know what he wanted and how to get there and get other people to help him get there?  Yes, and yes and yes.

The point is that no one person can take credit for all of it.  But the spearhead at the front, this guy Steve Jobs, who was always pushing these cute little devices at us for the last 35 years… he deserves most of that credit, if only for keeping the faith.

Imagine a PC only world – eeurgh.  Without Apple, even it the dark years, the PC would be years behind its current years-behind position.  Without the dangerous competition of Apple, the PC world would have squeezed our lemons until the pips squeaked.

Jobs’ insistence on excellent products had the impact of crystallising into reality and stores things that always stepped beyond the near-term development curve.  Not necessarily as transformational as say the Walkman, or transistor radios, but by gathering and aggregating into lovely-to-use things, he was the vanguard of development, and helped push forward the research that would drive that in the future.

Consider MP3 players – the first commercial version I recall was the Rio, circa … 1998?  I remember thinking “no, inadequate storage, but great idea, and it will clearly develop”.  When Apple delivered the ipod and itunes, they delivered the intangible delivery of music in a complete and unassailable way.  That’s what he did so well – and only an uncompromising drive for excellence can do that.

Everyone else would fold in front of investors and say ‘whatever, we’ll deliver half the cool stuff and ensure we safely meet the cashflow you need’.  Apple were able to deliver the future, invest funds to do it without safety nets, and have become better and better at it over time (we must demand they continue).  They bewitch investors, but they know what they’re doing.

Akin to scifi writers, they can absorb the current world of tech and understand the flows and desires, predict what will succeed, and give it to us in near-perfect form within the restrictions of the paradigm of technologies the best in the world can access.

Mac II was my first play, and i loved it.  Logan’s Run!  At school, I sought out the Mac lab for my (non-tech) work – I could properly draw and edit graphs for dissertations.  Now my Mac world is bigger, and as I work daily with PCs, I constantly know and feel the difference.  Mac does what it says on the tin.  PC’s don’t.

SJ wasn’t a saint (he was unkind to at least one person in his family), but in my mind he combines Andreas Pavel, Arthur C Clark and Turing.  To name a few.

Great man, sad goodbye.

http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/

Wow, so if I’m following this correctly…Jobs was secretly trying to save the world by selling us iThings and his arch-nemesis, Gates was secretly trying to destroy the world with lackluster operating systems. It all makes so much sense now.

You followed me incorrectly to an almost comedic effect. But more sad than funny, really.

I also don’t appreciate everyone’s bashing of the fundamental components of OSX. FreeBSD worked, KHTML worked, Mach worked. Yet no credit to those engineers? Furthermore there’s no credit given to all of the bright souls who surrounded and enabled Steve. So if you’re remembering Steve, remember HIM. Don’t attribute to him the fruits of poor uncredited engineers. He didn’t do that part, and you should know better.

RIGHT?

Is this truly the evolution of fanboyism? Do the protagonists get elevated to GOD (or demon) status upon death?

Gates is not trying to kill you. Jobs didn’t SECRETLY have your best interest at heart. They were both just trying to sell shit the best way they knew how. Life goes on, folks. :)