Maylin
The Windows versus Macintosh debate is both long and old and has fiercely loyal supporters on each side of the argument. So for a slightly different look at what each has given the world, let’s consider how things would be if Steve Jobs were CEO of Microsoft.
Though computers existed before Jobs came along, they required commands to be typed in by the user and a great deal of user knowledge to be able to operate one. Despite this, Jobs, partnered with Steve Wozniak, began making and selling personal computers, and thus Apple Computers was born in 1976. So the first point in our comparison, if Jobs had been CEO of Microsoft, then Apple would never have existed.
Computing would never have taken off if it had remained such a technically challenging field. A visit to Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, in 1979 showed Jobs an innovation that would change all of that-the graphical user interface (GUI). Xerox was running a GUI that it’s own programmers had designed, but they were interested only in the photocopier business and not computing, so when Jobs requested an official demonstration of the system for his entire programming team, it was granted. At this time Microsoft was still developing the BASIC interpreter, and had Jobs been CEO, he may have missed out on this pivotal demonstration and left us all in the dark ages of command line interfacing.
It then became Jobs mission to produce a GUI for the Macintosh computer, and the Apple Lisa was the result. This became the inspiration for the Windows GUI front end system-the operating system that would begin to make computing accessible for the masses.
In 1985 Jobs was fired from Apple and sold all but one of his shares there. In the two years that followed he first formed the computing company NeXT computers. The internet already existed at this point, but the World Wide Web-the system of linked documents that makes navigation easy and user friendly-did not. It was on a NeXT computer, that Sir Tim Berners Lee (at Cern)-designed the World Wide Web.
A year later, Jobs bought The Graphics Group-sold by George Lucas for a very good price, in an attempt to ease his divorce settlement woes. Half of the $10 million that Jobs paid for it was given back to the company as capital (all part of Lucas’ aims to reduce his capital) , and the company soon changed it’s name, becoming Pixar and contracting with Disney to produce such modern animated classics as Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and Cars. The common theme here?! With Steve Jobs as CEO of Microsoft, and presumably not being fired at that particular point in his life, there would have been no Pixar, and none of those movies would have come about.
Jobs returned to Apple in 1996 when Apple bought out NeXT computers. This was to be a turning point for Apple. Sales had been stagnating, but the introduction of features and technology designed for the NeXT platform revamped the Mac. New brands where introduced, such as the iMac and eventually the Macbook, that began to re-popularise the brand with computer users.
That strong branding proved to be invaluable when more recently devices such as the iPod music player were developed, and of course the controversial iPhone by Apple, none of which would exist in current form if Jobs ran Microsoft instead.
The start of the Windows operating system was somewhat shadier. Bill Gates very first success, a BASIC interpreter for the Altair platform became rapidly popular with the computing community and a preproduction leaked copy was pirated and distributed. Gates at this point became very vocal in making demands for payment, and stating that all software developers deserve payment. If Jobs had been CEO, then perhaps open source software would be more popular today, especially when you remember that the Mac OS was based around unix and that he had a very positive attitude towards open source at around that time.
Down the line, the innovative technology that Microsoft has touted has generally been ‘inspired’ by Apple Computers, or by the Mac to the point that Apple sued Microsoft for copyright breach in 1988, stating that they stole the look and feel of the Macintosh. Apple lost after a drawn out court battle despite precedent being in their favor. In 1995 the hype for Windows 95, Bill Gates stated that their product will make computers easier to use and prettier to look at. And yet most of the features that they worked so hard for seven years on already existed-the GUI was already running on Xerox machines in 1979, some 14 years before.
But Microsoft did contribute many useful innovations to the computing world-if nothing else the large number of user applications that windows machines have always had. These would not run on the Mac, and so to succeed, Apple was forced to follow suit, designing their own applications. The competition between the two has clearly driven innovations on both sides.
Ultimately if Steve Jobs were CEO of Microsoft then a company that is of great importance to us today would not exist, and there would be no rivalry to drive that competition. But, on the plus side……
Windows operating system, developed under Steve Jobs direction may have been the most stable and useable operating system in the history of computing. Apple has been consistently five to ten years ahead of Microsoft in its innovations and features offered on its computers, as well as in its ease of use. We may have been left with an operating system that was very easy on memory and processor usage, instead of having to build ever bigger and more powerful machines to support the bloated, resource hogging operated systems that Microsoft produce, and the computer age may have been driven forward a decade earlier.
What’s more he just might be the wealthiest man alive.
February 13, 2008
If Jobs would have been the CEO of Microsoft then what would become of Bill Gates. I think that it’s not fair that we should compare the two out because these guys are totally different from each other. Everyone is different, even identical twins has something that they differ from. I don’t know if the OS are going to evolve as it is today.
February 13, 2008
That is a big if. Anything could have happened if he was with Microsoft. Though I’m sure that Microsoft would have been a lot better. They would have made a lot of innovative products rather than playing catch up all the time. I think it wouldn’t have deprived us of great products from Apple. Microsoft would have produced them instead.
February 14, 2008
It’s an interesting idea to ponder. I’m not sure what would have happened to either company. Microsoft owned the 90’s and since Apple introduced the iPod in 2001 their status has improved dramatically.
Steve Jobs in Microsoft would have probably sealed the market for Microsoft and no one would catch them.
February 14, 2008
If Steve Jobs was the CEO of Microsoft I believe windows would be a lot more reliable, and I think it will not look the same as it is right now. I think windows copied somehow the design of the Mac OS.
February 21, 2008
I used to be so leery about the whole command-line aspect of early computers that I didn’t want anything to do with the darned things. That is, until I saw a 1985-era Mac and wanted one for myself.
All the computers that I owned or used while I was still in college were Apple IIes, until I met a friend who had an IBM clone with MS-DOS. He taught me how to get over my fear of command line stuff - yes, I had to learn some to run DOS games and applications, but then Windows 3.1 came out and, because Macs were still very pricey, ended up becoming Windows-based dependent.
I still prefer Apple computers, even though I no longer own one.
February 22, 2008
I’m gonna have to agree with Cireeyes on this one. The look would definitely be different (and in my opinion, that’s a good thing) and windows would be much more reliable. I personally don’t see it ever happening though, but it would be interesting.
February 22, 2008
I’m gonna have to agree with Cireeyes on this one. The look would definitely be different (and in my opinion, that’s a good thing) and windows would be much more reliable. I personally don’t see it ever happening though, but it would be interesting.
February 22, 2008
I will throw a little extra fuel on the fire here. I am a Linux user, and I think that if Steve Jobs were CEO of Microsoft, there would have been more cooperation between the open source and the Microsoft community a lot sooner. Jobs sees the value in Unix, and other open source tools, while Gates is a very closed source supporter, no matter what he purports for open document standards. The release of OSX in the Apple world might have been more akin to the Win 98 release could Apple have not been struggling under Gates Business 101 for all these years.
February 22, 2008
The thing to keep in mind, though, is that the entire Apple team from the 1970s, not just Jobs, would have had to be in Microsoft in order for Windows to have been reliable and relatively bug-free from the git go. Jobs was essential, but weren’t there other partners involved?
February 27, 2008
Honestly I feel that if Jobs was CEO of microsoft, it would definitely look different from the perspective of mass appeal. Jobs is a better promoter than Gates, and the large sentiment from a good number of people that view MS as the bane of the corporate world probably would not exist.
February 28, 2008
I do not think Jobs would have taken a job their unless he was extremely over paid. After all, he is known for building companies not taking over huge companies. If you did not know, he is the AOL creator and person who took it too the most popular online service in history.
February 29, 2008
My bad, mistaken persons was confused for a minute there. Don’t know what I was thinking for a minute there.
Bill gates used to work for Jobs at Apple, after all that is how he got his start in the computer operating field. He just took the idea and tried to compete with it over the years, making it more affordable, but less stable. So to me there is really no comparison.
March 4, 2008
I think, attagirl, you were referring to Steve Case, the founder of AOL.
As far as AOL goes, it WAS the most popular online service, but it has lost popularity for many reasons. Some of them are its business tactics, but most are related to AOL’s software and how it tends to “take over” users’ computers and slowly killing them.
March 11, 2008
Um….
Having just checked Bill Gates’ bio online at Wikipedia, I don’t see any reference in which he worked for Apple. I read the article there at least three times - it’s rather long - and not one reference is made to ol’ Bill’s having “got his start in the computer operating field” at Apple.
March 12, 2008
That’s a new one to me as well. Bill Gates worked for Apple? Interesting, I have never heard that at all. Where did you find that out Attagirl? I just thought he a computer geek and also founder of Microsoft.
March 12, 2008
Actually, I did some research as well after posting, and Gates indeed did work with Apple in the 80’s, but not for. It was more like contract work where they worked together :
“Apple gave Gates a Macintosh prototype to work with so that they could release Word and Excel (then Multiplan) for the Mac in 1984 as its debut apps as well as MacPaint, MacDraw, etc. Later on Apple were making a MacBasic but Gates stopped them from doing this. — Wackymacs 11:44, 26 December 2005 (UTC)”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Bill_Gates/Archive_2#Regarding_Apple.3F
March 12, 2008
Ah, Leighdu. You are a far better researcher than this old geezer!
Still, the original post implied that Gates worked directly for Jobs and, well, looked over the Apple CEO’s shoulder to take ideas back to Microsoft and basically rip the Cupertino, California company off.
March 18, 2008
Good one!! And i guess a lot of research went into writing this article. But , if Jobs were to be the CEO of Windows, might be, he would have come up with even better products. Its not his fate, but his brain that made him reach the postion he is now in. So, an intelligent man like him could have done the same thing if he were to be in Microsoft also.
March 26, 2008
If Steve Jobs were CEO of Microsoft I do not think that things would be all that much different. Microsoft did all the things it needed to do to make it an industry giant and I believe that Steve Jobs would have done the same. Of course some of the details would be different but I don’t think the computer landscape would be vastly different.
April 10, 2008
Microsoft still put a lot of money into Apple from a reseach point of view so the pair are lareqady at least on speaking terms, If Jobs were head of Microsoft would things be different, I don’t really think so, they are both very creative and free thinkers, fate just just pushed them inot different business streams
April 11, 2008
I suggest you guys watch the old movie Pirates of Silicon Valley. The story is about the history of Apple computers and Microsoft. I do believe you’ll find most of your arguments in this movie. I’m not sure if the movie is still available.