Gates and Jobs to Share A Stage

Rob wrote with a link to a Computer Business Review online article, which reports that Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Apple chief Steve Jobs will make a joint appearance at a future technologies conference in Carlsbad, California. The event is expected to last a little more than an hour, and the two computer industry magnates are expected to reflect on their pasts - while theorizing on the future. "[WSJ Tech columnist] Walt Mossberg, a co-producer of the conference who will interview the execs on-stage along with colleague Kara Swisher, said they simply invited Gates and Jobs to do the interview ... [Mossberg] declined to give any color about the questions he and Swisher are preparing, or any additional information. Most likely, Gates and Jobs will use the occasion to do some friendly sparring on their polar-opposite philosophies on personal computing. Jobs may bang on about the benefits of a software-hardware approach, while Gates may rattle off the joys of partnering with hardware partners."

heroes

I have this vision of the future Heroes episode where Peter and Syler have a showdown. Glowing hands and all.

Re:heroes (OT)

I envision it starting like this:

Jobs: I'm a Mac
Gates: ...and I'm a PC

"their polar-opposite philosophies"?

Gates: We want you to be locked in to proprietary Microsoft products
Jobs: We want you to be locked in to proprietary Apple products

Would that be east-west poles, 'cause they seem pretty close together...

While drinking water....

"Jobs -- while Gates drinks a glass of water -- may bang on about the benefits of a software-hardware approach."

where's Linus?

Seems like a scheme to reiterate the idea that people can only choose between Mac and Windows. They are completely ignoring another big player.

Re:where's Linus?

Even if Linus was invited to attend, I don't think he would accept it. And if he'd accept, he's still not a business guy anyway, so he wouldn't fit on the conversation - he'd just babble "I don't care" at most stuff. He doesn't have the proper composture to behave in a way the target audience would expect in such an ocasion.

Re:where's Linus?

While you have a bit of a point, I don't think Linus is the right choice. I don't want to downplay his contribution or anything, but he's more of a programmer and more specifically a kernel hacker. Jobs and Gates are the businessmen who run the companies and oversee the product vision.

So Linus, the head Mac kernel guy, and the head Vista kernel guy might be interesting. Shuttleworth might be a better guy to line up with Jobs and Gates.

Re:while I wouldn't call it a confrontation of...

M$ = Lawful Evil (we can do what we want, our lawyers will make it legal)
Mac = Neutral Evil (we're evil, if we break the law our lawyers will get us out)
M$ = 20th level necromancer
special attack = Summon Zombie pc
Mac = 20th level enchanter
special attack = Charm people into thinking a Mac will make them cool

It's a special event.

When they get on stage, the lights will drop, strobes start going off, and as chain link fences lower from the ceiling, the techno music starts and the announcer screams, TECHNOLOGY CAGE MATCH!!!!!!!

Open letter

Dear Mr Jobs,

Please could you ask Bill to bring along 235 software patents or shut up.

Sincerely, everybody.

two things i want to see:

1. a spoof of those pc guy/ mac guy ads with jobs and gates in the appropriate roles. it will never happen, but still

2. an icon for jobs on slashdot. gates has his borg visor one. why not jobs with an ipod?

Why'd I think...

...when I first glanced at it, that the article headline said, "Gates and Jobs to Share A Grudge?"

2 CEOs enter...

2 CEOs enter...

One CEO leaves.

Re:Trying to care...

Let's not forget it wasn't long ago that MSFT basically ripped off apple [who rippled off PARC]

If Woz's explanation is correct, no one did any "ripping off" in this case. Apple paid for the rights to various parts of GUI from Xerox, and Microsoft traded rights to Apple II Basic in exchange for the GUI rights to make Windows.

Oblig.

Walt Mossberg: Bill Gates, what about a shared interview with Steve Jobs?
Billg: Sharing a stage with Steve Jobs? That's the dumbest fucking idea I've heard since I've been at Microsoft.

Not what they say...

What will be interesting is how they come across, Gates has always struck me as lacking heavily in charisma; which just happens to be Jobs strong point. In fact, I'm suprised that Microsoft shuffle Gates out quite so much, apart from being a very notable computing figure he never seems to be a good promoter of tech.; partly because he brings out resentment in many people and partly because he sums up the typical mainstream concept of 'Geekness' and all the ideas of inaccessability that conjures up...

Jobs on the other hand is gives off (regardless of if it is true or not) a degree of approachability and dramatic flair (but, some would argue, at a hinderence of reality and pesky fact).

So I'm not going to be too interested in what they say, but how they say, and most interestingly of all how they play it against each other. Although I can't shake the feeling that they will be slapping each other on the back....

Thank goodness it wasn't Ballmer

I'm sure Apple technicians breathed a sigh of relief when they found it was going to be Gates instead of Ballmer. An anti-pie personal forcefield is much easier to build than an anti-chair personal forcefield. :P

Too bad Steve doesn't seem to care about hardware

anymore. The macbook was updated after 6 months without a product refresh(I don't consider adding an 8 core option to an otherwised unchanged mac pro a refresh, you could do that aftermarket before anyhow). And the previously updated model was the macbook as well. The mac mini is a joke, hasn't seen a real update in over a year, and there are rumors of its demise. The iMac, macbook pros, and mac pros are no longer price competitive with other manufacturers like they were when they first came out. I don't mind paying a little bit more, but this is just stupid. It just seems to me that Apple no longer cares about computers, they want to peddle ipods, overpriced phones, and crappy media center pc replacements. If Apple doesn't majorly ramp up its lines by WWDC, my powerbook G4 will be the last mac I own. I don't want to sit around and wait until Steve Jobs considers computers are important enought to start making good ones again.

Is it safe?

Bringing matter and antimatter so close together? What if they annihilate each other in a giant explosion?

How Influential is Walter Mossberg?

As someone that has done some DIY once-upon-a-time:

1. this would be considered a "win" for both companies. IMHO the Wall Street Journal and a mention by Walt Mossberg is the pinnacle of PR success. Literally, it doesn't get much higher than that in the U.S. anyway.

2. This is a perfect example of the power of the media. Bitter rivals? Not if Walt Mossberg asks you to come to his event.

3. Walt's not going to do anything to ruffle any feathers. Considering the audience, this will most likely be a snoozer for most ./'ers.

4. Linus _should_ be in Walt's media contacts list. Does Linus pay an _insane_ amount of money to PR hacks who bribe their way into Walt's assistant's office? That's kind of a pre-requisite.

You know...

...you would think that Gates and Jobs would be best buddies....

After all, who else besides them have duped and lied more than them? (outside of politics, of course)

The difference between Gates and Jobs is only this: Gates TELLS you he is fucking you in the ass, whereas Jobs just hopes you won't notice.

The more things change...

Almost 25 years ago I was working as a programmer/analyst at Aetna Life & Casualty in Hartford CT. The company brought in Gates and Jobs for a one day seminar/meet-and-greet to help decide how seriously we should take the personal/desktop computer revolution. AL&C was at the time, of course, heavily into mainframe computing and barely looking at workgroup computing (System/38) let along personal computing.

The two gentlemen were cordial, but not particularly friendly toward each other and clearly had different visions of the future of corporate computing. Now here's the punchline: The big debate between the two was over the viability of COBOL. Jobs passionately prevailed on AL&C to drop the use of COBOL altogether (money quote: "Aetna is just about the only place left in the world that still uses COBOL, everyone else has migrated to C") while Gates was just as passionately (albeit not as charismatically) espousing the virtue of moving COBOL off of mainframes and on to the desktop.

Not a word from either of them about GUI or operating systems. Jobs was all about "new programming paradigms" and Gates was all about "the craft of programming" and how the broad range of Microsoft programming languages on PCs would accomodate that model. Gates was even promoting the idea that each programmer would have a wide range of programming languages at hand, using each one as appropriate for the task at hand like tools on a workbench. Of course, at the time, Microsoft's bread and butter was programming languages.

My, how times have changed!

A complete set

Where's Linus and Stallman? Throw them in there for Super Smash CEOs Brawl!

What about security?

Will Jobs and Gates bring their own security teams? Will they be like their operating systems?

The Apple attendees will walk in casually in their tie dye shirts and Birkenstocks, sit down and wait for the movie... er event to start with a glaze in their eyes and a half smile on their lips. Their wallets and ID will be safe and no one will get sick. They paid twice as much to attend, but no one will complain.

The Microsoft attendees will each be stopped at the door and asked "You are entering the auditorium. Accept or cancel?" When they go to sit down they'll discover their wallet is gone. Every fifth person will have a cold or some sort of virus so by the time the event is over, all the attendees will leave sick. They'll sit expectantly waiting for something to happen, but each time Bill walks out onto the stage he stumbles, falls and has to restart his entrance. Once he does get going all he'll talk about is how beautiful the backdrop is.

I personally think it would be rather humorous that they each give a presentation created and shown on their respective systems. We know Bill has been embarrassed by crashes a few times. Think he'll use Vista or XP?