Steve Jobs Is Dead

Steve Jobs is dead. The Apple chairman and former CEO who made personal computers, smartphones, tablets, and digital animation mass-market products passed away today. We're going to miss him. Deeply, and personally.

Steven P. Jobs passed away on October 5, 2011 after a long struggle with pancreatic cancer. He was just 56 years old. We mourn his passing, and wish his family the very best.

Let's address this up front: Gizmodo and Steve Jobs had, at best, a tumultuous relationship. Yet no matter how much he may have hated us, we admired him.

No, that's not quire right. We loved him.

He was the reason many of us got into this industry, or even care about technology at all. He made the computer personal, and the smartphone fun. Bill Gates may have put a computer on every office desk, but it was Steve Jobs who put one in every dorm room and bedroom and living room. And then, years later, he repeated the trick, putting one in every bag and every pocket, thanks to the iPad and iPhone. If you use a computer or smartphone today, it is either one he created, or an imitation of his genius.

He changed the way movies are made, the way music is sold, the way stories are told, the very way we interact with the world around us. He helped us work, and gave us new ways to play. He was a myth made man.

Prior to Steve Jobs, computers were alien to most of us. They were accessible to few people without an engineering degree. Not merely because of their complex operating procedures, but also because they were so cold and so inhuman. Jobs understood that they could be something more than that. That while computers would never be people, he could endow them with humanity. He could transform them into machines that not only anyone could use, but that everyday people would enjoy using thanks to the art of great design. He made them something that would be part of our lives. And he did that again and again.

His life story is familiar, but it deserves repeating. He was given up for adoption by his unmarried parents. He grew up in California, and was very much a product of that place and time. He took drugs. He got into phone hacking. Both were precursers to what would always be his interest: changing the status quo.

In 1976 he started Apple in a garage. Together with Steve Wozniak, he shipped the first true fully-built personal computer, the Apple I. He drove development of the Mac, understanding that it was the future of computers. The great thing that we would all see. He brought in a grown up to run the company. And that grown up forced him out of the company that he built and into the wilderness.

While he was gone, he started NeXT computer. The NeXT operating system would form the underpinnings of Apple's OS X, and iOS.

He also started the best movie studio of the past 30 years. Pixar's films were innovative, to be sure. It pushed the boundaries of CGI to such an extent that even today its early films still look great. But technology is only a tool. As with everything else he understood that great technology alone is not enough. It must be human to have an impact. Pixar movies tell stories. They make grown men cry. That was the impact of Steve Jobs.

He became a family man. He reunited with his biological mother, and his sister, the writer Mona Simpson. He married. He had children. He was, by all accounts, a great dad. It was his role as husband and father that helped drive his second act at Apple.

After his return to Apple, the company began shipping iconic product after iconic product. Products that defined a decade. The iMac, OS X, the iPod, iTunes (which was very good, before it was very bad), the iPhone, the iPad. All of these were deeply human products. They reflected his understanding of how technology was used not only in the workplace, but in the home. In his keynotes, product demos typically showed not executives, but families.

He made Apple into the most valuable company in the world.

He never met his biological father.

He accomplished so many things, in so many fields that it's tempting to compare Jobs to someone from the past. A Thomas Edison or a Ben Franklin or even a Leonardo Da Vinci. We tend to do that because it helps us understand. But it does him a disservice. He was unique. His own person. Our own person.

He was our emblematic genius. In 100 years, when historians talk about the emergence of the age of intelligent machines, it is Steve Jobs they will hold up as the great exemplar of our era.

They will remember his flaws, too. When Atari hired Jobs and Woz to write the code for the iconic Atari game Breakout, the pair earned a $5000 bonus for completing the work, largely done by Woz. But Jobs kept the bonus a secret, and only paid his partner $375. When his daughter Lisa was born in 1978, he spent two years denying he was her father. His denials forced her and her mother to support themselves on welfare. In the workplace he's often been described as temperamental and even petulant. He could be arrogant and unforgiving.

He was not a god. He was simply a man.

Yet for all his faults, he changed the world. He made it better.

He once famously asked of a critic "what have you done that's so great?" For Jobs, the answer to that question was very nearly unlimited.

Our world will be less interesting, less exciting, and less meaningful without him.

Goodbye, Mr. Jobs. We will miss you so very much.

Kasrkai wrote:Who?

Cheesecat wrote:

Kasrkai wrote:Who?

Um, yeah who is this guy?

Cheesecat wrote:

Kasrkai wrote:Who?

Um, yeah who is this guy?

WARORK93 wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:

Kasrkai wrote:Who?

Um, yeah who is this guy?

Not sure if trolling...

if not: FFS...the guy was one of the founders of Apple...y'know...Macs...iphones...ipads

Today is a sad day...

The_Savior wrote:Yeah, I'm sure it's sad and to a lot of people it's a "big" deal...
But Steve Jobs wasn't the only person in world that died today.
I guess it's just the only person people seem to care about.

And seeing how I don't use Apple products nor Macs...

The_Savior wrote:Yeah, I'm sure it's sad and to a lot of people it's a "big" deal...
But Steve Jobs wasn't the only person in world that died today.
I guess it's just the only person people seem to care about.

And seeing how I don't use Apple products nor Macs...
Maybe you shouldn't post pictures with that especially if people viewed the guy as such.

Nerivant wrote:

The_Savior wrote:Yeah, I'm sure it's sad and to a lot of people it's a "big" deal...
But Steve Jobs wasn't the only person in world that died today.
I guess it's just the only person people seem to care about.

And seeing how I don't use Apple products nor Macs...

You get uppity about everyone not paying attention to every human being who died today, then state that a particular human's life was worthless.

I'll hold my tongue and keep my Dakka membership, and just report you.

But know that you are the worst kind of person.

The_Savior wrote:Yeah, I'm sure it's sad and to a lot of people it's a "big" deal...
But Steve Jobs wasn't the only person in world that died today.
I guess it's just the only person people seem to care about.

And seeing how I don't use Apple products nor Macs...

The_Savior wrote:It's not that I see it as "Why only Steve Jobs..."

It's just anyone would much rather pay homage to a celebrity or public figure.

I mean I know we can't all look up who died and keeps tabs.

But... I'm sure this isn't the biggest event that happened in our lives today.

The_Savior wrote:I'm sorry for saying how I feel?

And yes I admit the picture is highly inappropriate.

The_Savior wrote:I'm sorry for saying how I feel?

Nerivant wrote:

The_Savior wrote:I'm sorry for saying how I feel?

You're entitled to your opinion, of course.

You just stated in the wrong place, as offensively as possible.


How would you like it if someone walked in on your funeral, yelled, "hey, this guy was worthless, do you have any idea how many people died today," when there is a convention for atrocities being committed around the world just down the street?

If you want to make a comment about this, then make a thread for it. Don't do it here.

Bill Gates
I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.

Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.

The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.

For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.