Steve Jobs Undergoes Cancer Surgery

Zycom writes "Reuters reports that doctors successfully removed a cancerous tumor from the pancreas of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. In an e-mail he sent out from his hospital bed after the surgery he explained the disease, saying, "I had a very rare form of pancreatic cancer called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor, which represents about 1 percent of the total cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed each year, and can be cured by surgical removal if diagnosed in time (mine was)." He will not need to have any chemotherapy or radiation therapy and has an excellent prognosis. While he is recuperating, Tim Cook, head of worldwide sales and operations, will run the company."

If Jobs wasn't there

[usefool]

I would like to ask what would happen if, one day, Steve Jobs wasn't there for Apple anymore, will it still be as innovative as before? (not that I wish anything bad happens to him)

Re:If I were the surgeon...

[TiMac]

All kidding aside, I'm more than glad he's going to be okay. He's done more for the computer industry than most.

Good to Hear

[agraupe]

I've had a love/hate relationship with Macs (as with windows), but I still wouldn't wish this on anyone. It's good to hear that he is recovering.

Re:No offense ...

[telstar]

"But why slashdot of all places ?"

• Simple as this ... no Steve Jobs ... no Apple computers ... no iMac, iCal, iPod, iBook ... you get the picture. He's one of the men that continues to shape the industry ... so when he goes under the knife, people tend to take notice.

Get well....

[ericdano]

Get well Steve. You are an inspiration, and someone to look up to in the industry.

A Wake Up Call?

[femto]

Remember that everyone is a potential dead person. Live your life as if you are going to be dead tomorrow.

Hang in there, Steve

[nordicfrost]

All competition put aside, the modern IT world wouldn't be the same without you. If you hadn't dragged Apple kicking and screaming into the new millennium, who would have given Microsoft a run for its money (until Linux on the desktop comes)?

As a child of a twice cancer survivour, I wish all of your family well, I know they are praying for you (Even if they aren't religious).

Re:Does Jobs' have a successor?

[jmichaelg]

From what I see, Apple = Steve. Apple's success lies in Steve's hands, or more to the point, as goes Jobs, goes Apple.

It sure looks that way. The upside to having Jobs pay attention to so many details in a new product launch is you know what you're getting when you buy an Apple product. The downside is there's no one who knows what to do when he's gone because he's micro-managed everything.

It's very hard to start a company that lasts more than 5 years. It's even harder to start a company that survives its founder's leaving.

Re:distorted vision of CEOs etc

[Anonymous Coward]

Hate to break it to you, but Steve, along with many other technology CEOs are often heavily involved with certain projects and usually decide which direction the company will go in terms of research and focus. The iMac was Steve's baby and from what I understand, he was also heavily involved in the development of the iPod. This includes making design decisions and influencing how the engineers accomplish certain tasks. Ever wonder where Keynote came from? That's right, Steve wanted a presentation program he could use for his keynotes and managed to get some developers within Apple to write one according to his specifications. Finally, who killed off the greatest PDA to have ever existed? Steve. That's why news of a tech company's CEO will typically make slashdot.

Disgusting

[MacOSXHead]

I am aghast at the some of the remarks to this news.

First of all, Steve is a father to several children and is sick with a serious illness. This alone should cause you to some show sort of decency in your remarks.

I have a nephew who is fighting Leukemia. When you visit someone you know or who is a member of your family with cancer, it is hardly funny.

The Slashdot community may not respect Steve Jobs for what he did for modern computing. That is their ignorance. I just cannot understand the callousness of some people who poke fun other's tragedies.

I wish S.J. a speedy recovery, foremost for his family. I do not know him, but I know the result of his imagination. We should all strive to have that impact on the world.

Re:All Jokes Aside

[nic barajas]

Never said anything about being cured. I seriously hope he makes a full recovery without and remission. Cancer is such a terrible disease for everybody it afflicts, whether it be the CEO of a major corporation or a small child.

Re:A serious question.

[Moofie]

Created the notion that computers should be well designed, not just raw utilitarian functionalism?

You might disagree, and you're entitled to. Me, I think Jobs has immeasurably improved my experience of using computers.

What has he done? Re-energized a bunch of creative engineers and designers. Led them to take on the world and design insanely great products.

Is he a coder? Or an engineer? Or a designer? No. He's a visionary. We need all those sorts of people to advance the state of any art.

You are, of course, free to hate his vision. I do not. : )

Re:Get well....

[Moofie]

Like it or not, an idea is only as good as its salesman.

See my other response to your post on the subject.

Woz didn't turn Apple around, leading the company to develop a kick ass new operating system and this sweet Powerbook I'm working on.

Woz is a freakin' genius, and a real mensch. But just because he's great doesn't mean Jobs has to be not-great. Jobs is a great leader.

Re:Nothing like cancer...

[Anonymous Coward]

Offtopic. That's funny.

Re:A serious question.

[martinX]

Reality distortion field. He makes people believe anything can happen.

And then it does.

To all those in doubt

[Dylbert]

Without Steve, a lot of us wouldn't have the jobs we do have (or don't have?) right aboot now - nor would we be using some of the taken-for-granted-now-but-revolutionary-at-the-tim e gadgets that we rely on every day.

Get well soon, Steve. If the comments to this post are any gauge, you have the support of the nerd community across the globe.

Re:Virex 7.2 caught it.

[EvilAlien]

What does Media Access Control or Mandatory Access Control have anything do with this?

BTW, if you are going to give money to a cancer survivor non-profit in anybody's name, how about you do it in the name of a non-megalomaniac who can't afford to buy his way out of relatively trivial cancerous tumors?

Re:Does Jobs' have a successor?

[Anonymous Coward]

If not I'll gladly take on that responsibility.

It would be a hard job. Steve Jobs is not one of those CEOs that people resent for pulling down zillions of dollars for doing basically nothing all day. Running Apple would be like herding cats.

It would be a lot easier to run Dell, or even HP. You'd be under less pressure to push the envelope.

Re:Disgusting

[aluminumcube]

Having been an EMT and having had a couple of family members suffer through various forms of cancer, let me give you a little piece of advice- humor is the glue that keeps people alive.

I have yet to see a single comment that wished Steve harm or anything less then a full recovery. If someone had said something along those lines, it would be crossing the line into "Asshole Land," but surfing at +2 carma, I have seen nothing like that.

Otherwise, lighten up. Cancer jokes are funny and the people that laugh at them the hardest are usually people who have/had it.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Disgusting

[tekunokurato]

I'm a 22 year old cancer survivor and I don't need to say anything more than this: Laughter is the ONLY fucking way to get through this stuff.

micromanagement and credit where it is due

[SuperBanana]

If you'd be a little more informed, you'd know from talking with Apple engineers (lite I do at the Apple World Wide Developer Conference) that Jobs actually has a say in everything.

Did you just seriously imply that you need to "talk to developers at WWDC" like you do(nice horn tootin' by the way) to know Jobs micromanages? It's probably his most infamous personality quirk, aside from his massive ego, aka the Steve Reality Distortion Field.

You missed my point entirely. The original Jobs Fanboy said "ohmygosh, because, without Steve, we wouldn't have had..."

Which is absurd, and ignores the fact that even if Jobs pushes his nose into everything, at the end of the day, 98% of the work was done by other people. I can't stand it when people attribute the end product entirely to CEOs...

Re:Disgusting

[agildehaus]

I have seen no posts which do not respectfully make light of the situation. Jobs is doing well from what we all can gather, and so we're punching him in the arm a bit to congratulate him.

Much love for science and its ability to fix some of the ailments we all face.

Re:micromanagement and credit where it is due

[mj_1903]

Ok, let me rephrase it for him:

Without Steve Jobs, the products may exist, but they most certainly would not be up to the extraidonary standard they are.

Case in point, the original iPod as designed by engineers (pre-release) was almost impossible to navigate. Jobs sat down with the team and worked out how you could get to anywhere on the iPod with only 3 clicks. That is what sets Apple's products apart and what makes them so successful.

Re:Disgusting

[mjj12]

>I am aghast at the some of the remarks to this news.

I'm not. In this comment section I have seen lots of people express that it is good news that Steve Jobs is likely to make a quick recovery, and lots of people wish him the best. (I will add to that. Get well soon Steve). And there is discussion of the actual illness, as well as lots of jokes comparing his cancer and the medical procedures to practices and products of Apple and the computer industry. Few if any of the jokes strike me as mean-spirited though. Life can be hard. One way you survive it is by being jocular about it, even at difficult times.

Re:haha what?

[ChicagoBiker]

It just goes to show us, he's as nuts and excited about technology as the rest of us are. (I'm sure at least half of /. if they were in the same position would mention how they got an e-mail like that out).

Re:If Jobs wasn't there

[kimota]

I would like to ask what would happen if, one day, Steve Jobs wasn't there for Apple anymore, will it still be as innovative as before? (not that I wish anything bad happens to him)

I'd say it would be a matter of perception. Jobs wasn't at Apple for, what, about a decade?, and Apple kept innovating without him, although admittedly they weren't hitting too many balls out of the park. Still, they maintained the whole 'cult of the Mac' thing.

With Steve, you not only have the charisma of Apple and the Mac, but also a legendary, visionary "strong man" figure (and something of the trickster archetype, too, I'd say) to personify Apple and the Mac.

If Jobs were to die or leave the company suddenly, I think you'd have several years of fans' worrying about the future and columnists' saying that the company was rudderless and lacking vision, as though everything Apple had done right with Steve at the helm had been solely his idea. Real innovations would be cast in the media as mis-steps, actual mistakes would be seen as the death knell of Apple, that sort of thing... Actually, it'd be a lot like now, only without the gloss and drama of Jobs as wunder-CEO.

--Kimota!

NY Times Spin on the Article

[victor_the_cleaner]

I find it interesting that the New York Times version of the story is titled, 'Apple Chief Has Emergency Cancer Surgery [nytimes.com]' seems they had to throw that 'Emergency' in there. The other places I have seen the story never mention 'Emergency' in the title or the body of the article.

Re:Alrighty then!

[RiscIt]

"Bill Gates will get cancer in about 10 years time."

Just think of all the money that will get dumped in to cancer research then...

Re:Disgusting

[Idarubicin]

I am aghast at the some of the remarks to this news.

In general, the remarks I have seen have been respectful of Steve's condition. Yes, some have shown a sense of humour, and some have taken a few shots at Apple's warranty plans. It should be noted that Steve has an excellent prognosis. Non-metastatic cancer, well localized and readily excised. People would be more circumspect if the outcome were more in doubt.

Somber, humourless expressions of support are all well and good for politicians, and they're fine from close friends and family--in moderation.

From anybody else, come on. For people who are ill, the last thing they need are folks moping morosely around their hospital bed acting like they're already dead. Steve expects to be all right, and he's apparently quite well enough to be plugging the Powerbook and AirPort from his bed. Yes, he has cancer. Yes, he's having surgery. It's more serious than a tonsillectomy, but easier than a coronary artery bypass graft. For that matter, it will probably be done laparascopically, so it's less traumatic than, say, a C-section.

The problem is that word 'cancer'. It seems to have the same magical effect as 'terrorism'. The words are the ultimate trump cards in medicine and politics, respectively. Hear either one, and you're supposed to sit in stony, respectful, mournful silence.

Damn it, get real! These people are our friends and family. Should we stop laughing with them just because they're ill? Treat them differently? Shy away from smiling around them? Suck the fun out of their lives because joy, and humour, and laughter are only for the healthy?

In case some dumbass wants to spout off on my 'right' to have an opinion on this--yes, I have some experience with cancer. My best friend's mother passed away from a very aggressive breast cancer. My great uncle is pushing eighty after surviving a bout with lung cancer. I do cancer research for a living, in a large research and teaching hospital. Oh, and there seems to be a tendency towards Alzheimer's in my family, which is a really scary way to go.

I feel for the parent poster's nephew, and everyone who is facing cancer. It is scary, and it isn't funny. What I see here on Slashdot, though, it not people laughing at Jobs' cancer. I see people laughing with Jobs, because he's going to beat cancer. I see people laughing at Jobs for the same reasons they always have, and it's a taste of normality. I see people laughing at Apple, because it's friendly ribbing that Jobs is used to. He's one of the geek family; he took the time to tell us from his hospital bed what kind of hardware he was emailing from. The parent poster still plays games and jokes with his nephew, doesn't he?

Lighten up Francis

[whats_a_zip]

Geez, ever hear of gallows humor? Who among us hasn't lost someone dear to cancer, or has someone close to them battling the disease. Yeah, it happens. I haven't seen a single post that wished ill upon Steve Jobs. Get a sense of humor... by the way, they say laughing reduces the risk of cancer. So consider this group therapy.