The history of the development of personal technology cannot be understood without examining the relationship between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Although popularly represented as rivals, the founders of Apple and Microsoft, developed a relationship that allowed each one to identify the strengths and limitations of the other.
Recently, Bill Gates said that Steve Jobs’s clearest weakness was his lack of technical knowledge.
The founder of Microsoft explained: “I wasn’t an engineer, I didn’t know what the source code was, I didn’t know much about chip design … although his ability to choose people to work in those areas was incredible. ”
With this statement, Gates showed an aspect often omitted in the narrative about Apple’s creator: His distance from the engineering that held the products he devised.
The observation was part of a broader review of the relationship between both entrepreneurs, Marked by collaboration, competition and, over the years, a mutual admiration.
From the beginning of the technological revolution in the seventies, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates They coincided in the small circle of pioneers that believed that personal computer science would transform the world.
Gates recalled on different opportunities how, together with Paul Allen, he met Jobs and Steve Wozniak in an environment dominated by enthusiasm for the first computers in Kit. “We were facing something that would be huge,” he said.
In Apple’s first years, Microsoft played a key role as a software supplier. Appleoft Basic, a programming language created by Gates and his team, became the standard in the first Apple models.
This cooperation was deepened during the development of the Macintosh, when Jobs invited Microsoft to develop applications for its new operating system. According to Gates, more Microsoft people worked in that project than Apple, something that described as “really fun.”
The collaboration gave way to open competition when Microsoft launched Windows, an operating system with a graphic interface similar to that of the Macintosh. Jobs publicly accused Gates of copying his idea, but Gates replied that both had adapted innovations developed by the Xerox Parc laboratory.
In retrospect, Gates described his relationship with Jobs as complementary. While he focused on software performance and code efficiency, Jobs promoted a user experience without concessions.
“Steve said something like: ‘I don’t want any software to have manuals’. Which, well, it is a detail, but we really needed help and documentation,” said Gates, who stressed that Both approaches ended up generating more robust products.
Although Gates highlighted Jobs’s lack of technical knowledge, he recognized his intuition for design. “In terms of intuition for a good user interface and for design … he had all and I didn’t. I envy your genius in that”He said.
According to Gates, that talent allowed Jobs to anticipate trends in human-machine interaction that others did not see.
Another central aspect in his vision was team leadership. Jobs did not program, but knew how to surround themselves with people who complement their deficiencies. Gates admitted that this was key in Apple’s success, especially in the second stage of Jobs at the head of the company.
When Jobs became ill, both held private meetings in which they talked about their families, their legacy and unresolved challenges. One of the recurring issues was the little transformation of education through computer science, despite the expectations that both had decades ago.
Gates also reflected on Jobs’s absence in philanthropy, a field in which he has invested much of his fortune. “Steve never got involved in philanthropy. Now his widow, Laurene, is doing a great job in that areaand I’m sure he would be proud, ”he said.
