

My one question for Steve Jobs in 2000 - jonathanberger
http://baligu.blogspot.com/2011/08/my-one-question-for-steve-jobs-in-2000.html

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boredguy8
I like the friend's response. Almost always, the only wrong response to a "two
roads diverged in a yellow wood" situation is to stall.

~~~
RobAtticus
I was really expecting there to be a twist like the "friend" was actually Bill
Gates. Imagining that, it made the "friend's" response even more humorous.

~~~
chaostheory
Given the tone of language, it's most likely Larry Ellison; Oracle's head
honcho.

[http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/Larry_Ellison_Discuss...](http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/Larry_Ellison_Discusses_Steve_Jobs_In_Interview/)

"Q: Another person who has a certain mythology about him is your friend Steve
Jobs. Everybody seems to believe they know the book on Jobs: heis brilliant
but hard-driving, overly sensitive. Do you and he ever talk about that?

A: We almost decided to wear T-shirts: 'The Mercurial Steve Jobs' and 'The
Arrogant Larry Ellison.'

Steve Jobs is my best friend, and I love him dearly, and heis one of the most
remarkable people on this planet. You watch him create Apple, then in one of
the worst human-resources mistakes in the history of Silicon Valley -- the
only thing worse was when the French fired Napoleon -- they fire Steve Jobs
and Apple almost completely disintegrates. Then he comes back and he saves a
company that was on life support.

I never see this quoted about Steve, but they once asked Andy Grove who he
most admired in the PC industry, and he said, "One guy: Steve Jobs. He
invented the PC industry."

You know, we live in a very egalitarian world. We donit like heroes. And Steve
is one of these heroic guys whose accomplishments are of such epic
proportions, and it gnaws away at our egalitarian sense of the world."

~~~
jonathanberger
This was my guess exactly, actually.

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kleiba
The more posts like this I read, the more they sound like obituaries. The man
might be sick, but he's not dead! He just stepped down from being CEO, that's
all.

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lostbit
I remember watching "Pirates of the Silicon Valley" some time ago. It was nice
to see the battles between Gates and Jobs in the beginning of the PC era. That
movie ended even before Apple's re-birth.

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aneth
'Steve, look. I don't give a fuck about Apple. Just make up your mind'

I need friends like that. Glad to know indecision has good company.

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vziard
Why is this on HN? Who the fuck cares about Apple?

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olalonde
TLDR: Steve Jobs decided to go back to Apple after his friend told him he
didn't give a fuck about Apple.

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cbs
_"Is Apple ever going to go after the enterprise market?" (Steve's response, a
refreshing "If you're interested in that, you're probably at the wrong
company.")_

You like our software enough to want to use it at work and/or want others to
get to use it? Yeah, fuck that.

~~~
mgkimsal
I thought that at first too, but I think it could be interpreted a couple
other ways too.

What we've seen over the last 10 years or so is the increased consumerization
of the enterprise. Essentially, large IT depts have been forced to accommodate
iPhones and iPads, due to large numbers of people buying them then saying "I
want to use this at work", rather than Apple having to accomodate "enterprise"
needs (and thereby perpetuating often antiquated or just poor ways of doing
things).

I'm generalizing here a bit, but that's another way I'd read it. It probably
would have been difficult for people in the late 90s to foresee how much
consumerization of IT we'd see 10-15 years in the future

~~~
cbs
_rather than Apple having to accomodate "enterprise" needs (and thereby
perpetuating often antiquated or just poor ways of doing things)._

Thats kind of a plastering over of the reality though.

iOS plays nice with ActiveSync, right there thats Apple accommodating
enterprise needs. I can hit up exchange to remote wipe any employee's iPhone
right now.

Its not that IT departments are forced to accommodate _iPhone_ s, they're
forced to accommodate yet another smartphone.

~~~
mgkimsal
Yes, I did realize I was generalizing some. But... Apple's supported some of
those protocols, but not out of the gate, and they've not built their initial
products around some competitor's idea about a market (at least, not that I've
seen). So... yes with the iPhone, they did accomodate "the enterprise", but
didn't base the success of the iPhone on how well it was accepted by 'the
enterprise'.

