RIP Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

B

Beastie

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.
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source: Apple

Steve Jobs, Apple's cofounder and former CEO, has died. He was 56 years old.

His death was reported late Wednesday in a brief statement on Apple's website. Apple's homepage featured a black-and-white photo of Jobs with a closely trimmed beard bearing his name and the years 1955-2011.
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source: The Register
 
I may not like the direction Apple was/is heading but the man was nothing less then an icon. And 56 is way too young to die.
 
On Life

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Steve Jobs
February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011
 
It is a sad day. I bet a lot of computer nerds who grew up with the Mac Classics and earlier Apple gear are feeling old like I am. RIP Steve.
 
He's very close to my age guys! He was the most brilliant and influential person in my age bracket I think. He will sorely be missed.
 
I don't like apple at all.
However I must admit that he was able to change the computing world in a strong way.
RIP.
 
da1 said:
Am I the only one that thinks there is something seriously wrong with that guy ?
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Stallman is rumored to have the social skills of a lawyer without the style.

What did Steve do to him?
He started something in a garage that turned the world upside down. You can like his way of doing things at apple or you don't (i don't), but he did them. He had a vision and he lived for that, maybe even died for it. Maybe you need to have the single-mindedness of a brick to keep such an endavor going and going, and I am not sure if I would have it. So, therefore, yes - he was a great man and he will be missed. When not for what he did, then for showing what can be done if you do not loose your dream and follow your vision.

What he did to his customers is on a completely different slate, and said slate has two sides. Not to be discussed here, I think.
 
da1 said:
Am I the only one that thinks there is something seriously wrong with that guy ?
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Stallman eats things off his feet whilst giving a lecture (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ) so, yeah, there is definately something wrong with him.

... but in this case, I think he has a point. I am not personally very impressed with what Steve Jobs has done. I don't think anything he has done has had any effect on my life tbh.

Perhaps in his last few weeks left, he should have just opened up all Apple's software and platforms.

Now that would have changed the world!

(That said, I am sad that he died :(
 
I don't know much about Steve Jobs, but this is what I think I know (at least what matters to me). He was good at improving and selling other peoples' ideas. His company used FreeBSD as a starting point to make an operating system that became popular enough that standards and interoperability started to matter to a lot of users. My impression was that his top priorities were business and marketing and that just doesn't appeal to me. I had a bad experience helping a lab mate remove a hard drive from an old mac laptop. What a royal pain. I think we had to take the darn motherboard out to get to the drive! I can't help but think this was done to force users to pay for service. It was like you had to have special apple screws and screwdriver to work on it. When Stallman says "the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom" I can't help but at least partially agree. Maybe Stallman eats crap off his foot, maybe he's a zealot and an idealist, but I believe he cares about computing freedom. Many of us disagree how he goes about it, but at least what you see is what you get.
 
da1 said:
Am I the only one that thinks there is something seriously wrong with that guy ?
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Your not alone to be honest I feel he dose more harm than good to the public image of FOSS, Linus comes across professional and some what charming and stallman comes off as a hippy who forgot the 60's ended and the world moved on. I am not going to bash the GPL here as I am a believer of you pick the licence that suits you, but he seems to want to take it to strange places, I'll leave it at that.

But back on topic, yes RIP Steve way to young to die.
 
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but Rob Pike just posted that Dennis Ritchie died this weekend! Here's the link on Rob's Google+ site. Mod's you can move this post to the "News & Announcements" thread.
 
@rbelk : Sad news indeed. I salute dmr for what he did to my life and the world. All this makes me feel old and fear the question : who's next? Our trade, the world we live in and work in, looses it's creators and dreamers.
 
It is sad that two greats in the computer arena have taken the inevitable right at the same time frame of one another. Though I am more familiar with Jobs because of his brand sensation which is Apple, has taken the market by a storm. I think their contribution to the computing discipline will always be remembered though the younger generation would probably be more familiar with Steve.
 
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