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Microsoft Businesses Apple

Gates and Jobs to Share A Stage 210

Posted by Zonk from the no-not-celebrity-death-match dept.
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."
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Gates and Jobs to Share A Stage More

Gates and Jobs to Share A Stage

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  • heroes (Score:5, Funny)

    by I_am_mccool ( 961083 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:04AM (#19268539) Homepage
    I have this vision of the future Heroes episode where Peter and Syler have a showdown. Glowing hands and all.

  • While drinking water.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Himring ( 646324 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:06AM (#19268561) Homepage Journal
    "Jobs -- while Gates drinks a glass of water -- may bang on about the benefits of a software-hardware approach."

  • Ob (Score:2, Funny)

    by Hognoxious ( 631665 )
    Hope they don't talk about computers [youtube.com]

  • where's Linus? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cyphercell ( 843398 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:09AM (#19268593) Homepage Journal
    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: (Score:3, Funny)

      by jimstapleton ( 999106 )
      He couldn't make it, so they decided to put a cage of these little guys [wikipedia.org] up there instead for cute-factor.

      That, and it'll be the only way to get any noise up there that isn't marketing rhetoric.

    • Re:where's Linus? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by cronot ( 530669 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:26AM (#19268793)
      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: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Atheose ( 932144 )

      They are ignoring another big player


      And I suppose you think Luxembourg is a world superpower?

      I think the word "big" above is rather generous.
      • Maybe s/he comparing it to minix or hurd...?
      • Considering that over 50% of North American companies use Linux in some capacity, I think "big" is appropriate here. However, this is a conference on general consumer technology, not specifically OSes, so I don't think Linus would be a good fit.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Seems to me like it's more of a spokesperson X talks about the future/past. Linus is the most prevalent name as a spokesperson for Gnu/Linux operating systems. OSS is really interesting and people may very well like to understand what Linus does better. For instance he does have complete control over Linux (the kernel), but has little to no influence over the actual distributions. At the end of the day I think the stories of these three software giants are full of dramatic flare (as far as business stories

        • For instance he does have complete control over Linux (the kernel), but has little to no influence over the actual distributions.

          Isn't that a bit of a contradiction? He may have control over the official kernel, but because he doesn't control the distributions, he doesn't have any control over what the kernel looks like in the distributions except insofar as they choose to stick with the official kernel.

          So, ultimately, he doesn't have complete control over Linux (the kernel). People can do whatever they

    • Not Linus - Stallman! (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Three-way cage fight!

      Of those three, Stallman is the only one that cares about anyone but himself.
      • Of those three, Stallman is the only one that cares about anyone but himself.

        Every time rms opens his mouth, he hurts the Free/Open Source Software (I don't care if he doesn't like the term) movement.

        Mark Shuttleworth, please.

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by Mix+Master+Nixon ( 1018716 )
          Shuttleworth needs to bust through the ceiling and decend to the stage suspended from a cable about halfway through the Gates/Jobs "summit", throwing Ubuntu CDs into the crowd with his full astronaut gear on. That would be entertaining, if nothing else.

    • Re:where's Linus? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by nine-times ( 778537 ) <nine.times@gmail.com> on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:35AM (#19268899) Homepage

      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: (Score:2)

        by Tribbin ( 565963 )
        I would instantly loose trust if Shuttleworth were on stage with them.

      • Shuttleworth might be a better guy to line up with Jobs and Gates.

        Shuttleworth is a neat idea, but he doesn't quite represent OSS all by himself. I'm beginning to think that an OSS forum might work better. RMS, ESR, Shuttleworth, Linus, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, and relevant representatives from other sources, just basically shooting the sh*t about the future of OSS. That might be cool, but completely inappropriate for this particular interview. Maybe an all inclusive OSS representative might come out of meetings like this though.

    • Neither Apple nor Linux is really a big player. I have never seen Linux's desktop user base go much beyond 1%, which makes Apple's 3-5% look big. The server space is a different story, but I expect that this discussion is really about personal devices, not computing in general.

      However, Microsoft and Apple are influential, I'm struggling to figure out Linux's level of influence in determining the direction of personal computers and personal electronic devices.

      • However, Microsoft and Apple are influential, I'm struggling to figure out Linux's level of influence in determining the direction of personal computers and personal electronic devices.

        I guess that's pretty much it. If Apple does something, the rest of the industry (and I don't just mean the computer industry) will follow a few months later. If Microsoft does something, 80% of all people will know about it or use it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) *
      Linus nah get RMS. He'll make sure that if you were thinking about switching to Linux you wouldn't.

      • Linus nah get RMS.
        Ah yes. Then we'd get preached to about why Gnu/Linux is Gnu/superior to both Gnu/Mac AND Gnu/Windows which are all teh sux0rs to Gnu/Hurd which will be released any Gnu/Hurd/Day now.
    • Linus would be completely irrelevant as he only develops a kernel. It would be like if the BSD kernel guys got invited instead of Jobs for Apple. Both Gates and Jobs primarily care about the end user experience which is pretty irrelevant to kernel development.

      If Linus makes his own portable music play (call it the "minus"), then invite him. Until then, I'm afraid only someone like Stallman, Parens, or maybe the Ubuntu guy even come close to offering as broad a spectrum of offerings from the open source c

  • It's a special event. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:12AM (#19268645) Homepage
    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!!!!!!!

    • Strangely, last time the two were on stage, it didn't end well for Jobs... was the beginning of the end in those days for Apple... is history repeating itself?

  • Open letter (Score:5, Funny)

    by styryx ( 952942 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:13AM (#19268657)
    Dear Mr Jobs,

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

    Sincerely, everybody.
  • Though I won't go see it, I look forward to the dance remixes.
  • 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?
    • >>1. a spoof of those pc guy/ mac guy ads with jobs and gates in the appropriate roles. it will never happen, but still

      I doubt it. Those commercials are partially an ego trip for Jobs, saying "see, *I* am cooler than Bill" just as much as Mac is cooler than PC. I don't see why Bill would give him the satisfaction of playing it out in real life.

      Of course, I could see Jobs jumping out and saying "Hi, he's a PC and I'm a Mac"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by root_42 ( 103434 )

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

      Or an iGasm? *ducks*

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

      The Gate-as-Borg icon is typical /. humor, so would Jobs-with-iPod [extraneo.it] meet /. standards?

    • 1. a spoof of those pc guy/ mac guy ads with jobs and gates in the appropriate roles.

      http://www.current.tv/pods/supernews/PD05440 [current.tv]

      --
      It sucks. You suck. I'm cool and your a pathetic old man.... iPhone bitch!

  • Why'd I think... (Score:4, Funny)

    by trudyscousin ( 258684 ) * on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:19AM (#19268715)
    ...when I first glanced at it, that the article headline said, "Gates and Jobs to Share A Grudge?"

  • 2 CEOs enter... (Score:5, Funny)

    by techmuse ( 160085 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:23AM (#19268757)
    2 CEOs enter...

    One CEO leaves.

  • Oblig. (Score:5, Funny)

    by vivaoporto ( 1064484 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:24AM (#19268765)
    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... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by paintswithcolour ( 929954 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:27AM (#19268799)
    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....

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Stormwatch ( 703920 )

      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).

      Jobs does not hinder reality.

      He merely... distorts it.
  • Jobs: Hi, I'm a Mac. Gates: And I'm a PC.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by MontyApollo ( 849862 )
      It would be funnier if they were reversed, Bill dressed up as Mac/Jobs and Jobs dressed as PC/Gates. Bill could say something like "Hi, I am a Mac, the 3rd most expensive purchase you will ever make". And Jobs could say "Hi, I am PC. Far from cool, but I do follow lemmings off cliffs". And so on and so on...
  • ...imagine what they would talk about [myextralife.com] already!
  • Either way, it's gonna be entertaining!
  • Real wrath-of-God type stuff
    Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling.
    Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes...
    The dead rising from the grave.
    Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria.

    Have a nice day!

  • from a UK comedy show on the BBC ..

    http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=harry+ enfield+jobs+gates&search=Search [youtube.com]

    (warning some links may not be work safe!)

  • Thank goodness it wasn't Ballmer (Score:5, Funny)

    by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:42AM (#19268979)
    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 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:44AM (#19269009) Homepage Journal
    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.
    • Well, what updates do you have in mind? The Macs run the fastest processor available. They run 802.11n, have blue tooth, integrated camera, etc. Maybe they will work on a tablet someday but I suspect that will only happen when they finish the iPhone. Apple always take small but measured steps. Getting multi-touch screens to work is probably a first step in that direction.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Yvan256 ( 722131 )
        The Mac mini still uses the Core Duo and only has 802.11g. No Core 2 Duo, no 802.11n. And it's still too expensive too. When it lauched it was 499/599$US. Not anymore.

        AOpen just released their own Santa Rosa "Mac mini-sized" desktop computer. I'm hoping Apple will release a new Santa Rosa Mac mini next tuesday.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by gig ( 78408 )
      C'mon, man ... it is a few months until Leopard. These systems don't exist in a vacuum. You are looking right now at the very end of the end of the Intel transition. All of the machines pretend to be their immediate PowerPC predecessors in some way to minimize the fuss. The Intel transition is over and Leopard is coming that is going to mean new machines and probably a whole new model of some kind, like a very small notebook or something that fits between Mac mini and Mac Pro.

      Also, the Mac Pro update to 8 p

  • Is it safe? (Score:4, Funny)

    by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:46AM (#19269035) Journal
    Bringing matter and antimatter so close together? What if they annihilate each other in a giant explosion?
  • I'm surprised nobody's excited about the part where Bill Gates walks towards a table of Apple gear and Steve Jobs stops him, yelling, "You shall not pass!"

  • How Influential is Walter Mossberg? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mpapet ( 761907 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @08:48AM (#19269091) Homepage
    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.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by fishboy ( 81833 )
      What on earth are you talking about? This isn't a 'win' for Apple and Microsoft, it's a win for Walt Mossberg. These are two of the most powerful people on earth, neither they nor their companies give a shit about what Walt Mossberg thinks, they own Walt Mossberg. Walt's not going to ruffle any feathers because he's paid to keep his mouth shit and his opinions to himself. I think you have the PR thing backward, Mossberg's going to be licking their boots. Seriously man, Bill Gates is the richest man on
  • Can you picture the side show event for this? Ballmer is off to one side, throwing chairs...

    How much is a ticket for this event again? :)

  • You know... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Pojut ( 1027544 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @09:09AM (#19269371) Homepage
    ...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... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by withoutfeathers ( 743004 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @09:10AM (#19269387)
    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!
  • Ah yes, way back in 1983 [applematters.com]. Although they had a phone call [time.com] after Microsoft put some cash into Apple in 1997. I bet they go to the pub when they're both in the same town too.
  • Difficult to see why this is surprising. Its a fairly close business relationship. Office for the Mac is a critical element of keeping the platform alive. Apple and Microsoft have similar approaches to the software business - they both believe in controlling the experience - the display manager, window manager, desktop environment. There are no published APIs which will let another party make a competing window manager for either OSX or XP/Vista. Both also believe in restricting the availability of the

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by JustNiz ( 692889 )
      >> Office for the Mac is a critical element of keeping the platform alive.

      I really don't get this. I've been using OpenOffice for quite a while now and it seems much more useable and intuitive than MS Office. Its also compatible with MS formats and is free in all senses of the word.

      Mac users surely don't have the same locked-into-Microsoft mentality as Windows users as they chose a mac over a PC in the first place, so why don't most Mac users switch to OpenOffice?

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by jb.hl.com ( 782137 )
        I really don't get this. I've been using OpenOffice for quite a while now and it seems much more useable and intuitive than MS Office. Its also compatible with MS formats and is free in all senses of the word.

        Only problem is that OpenOffice doesn't run nicely on the Mac. And by "doesn't run nicely", I mean it's a bloated, ugly, craptacular pile of shite that doesn't integrate with OS X at all.
    • We know that in essentials you both have the same closed business model. How do you think that business model is going to compete against open source in a world in which hardware is open, and open source allows an unlimited quantity of derivative works to run on it?

      Right now, open source hasn't been a threat to either desktop platforms that I've seen.

      BTW: I don't use MS Office and I own both Mac and Windows PCs. There are a few alternatives out there, but that doesn't mean that they are a threat to the OS

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Budenny ( 888916 )
      I really do not get why this is rated a troll. Its a serious point. The argument from derivative works is basic economics, applied in a slightly unusual context and way, but its intellectually respectable. Yes, it is true that so far open source has not made inroads. But that does not mean the economic foundations are not laid to make its model, long term, more likely to win out. Nor does it mean that the MS and Apple model do not have more in common than they have differences.

      You have to imagine someo

  • A complete set (Score:3, Funny)

    by DeFender1031 ( 1107097 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @09:49AM (#19269969)
    Where's Linus and Stallman? Throw them in there for Super Smash CEOs Brawl!
  • So, like, if Jobs is winning.. when he's busy trying to pin Bill to the canvas, Steve Ballmer can climb through the ropes with a couple of chairs from the front row and hit Steve in the head.

    I've thrown charis before and I'll do it again! I'm going to fucking nail that guy!

    Awhrwhrewhehsdbhfgshfhasdf!

  • back in the mid 1990's, there was a feature interview in some magazine
    (was it Time, or Forbe, or Business Week -- I don't know) -- with
    Steve Jobs and Bill Gates -- it had pictures of Jobs barefoot in his house,
    and Jobs complaining how everyone had to go through Gate's portal
    to do anything in the computer industry (except him, of course).

    the interview came out maybe 1993 - 1994 -- just before they
    offered online or archived versions of these things. it was a good
    and informative interview.

    does anyone know wher

  • What about security? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Avatar8 ( 748465 ) on Friday May 25, 2007 @03:50PM (#19275621)
    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?

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