Dying Steve Jobs kept Bill Gates' letter at bedside

[Logandyer45]

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were frenemies, as many know, but when Jobs died last fall, the mutual respect between the two tech titans was quite strong: By his bed, Jobs kept a letter Gates had written the Apple co-founder in his final months.
Gates said on his last visit with Jobs, in the months before he died, "We spent literally hours reminiscing and talking about the future.” He made the remarks in an interview with The Telegraph recently.
And despite their business battles over the years, "There was no peace to make. We were not at war. We made great products, and competition was always a positive thing. There was no (cause for) forgiveness," said Gates, co-founder of Microsoft.

After their meeting, he wrote Jobs a letter, telling him "how he should feel great about what he had done and the company he had built. I wrote about his kids, whom I had got to know.”
The relationship between Jobs and Gates was detailed in Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs— with Jobs quoted as saying Gates is "basically unimaginative" and would "be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger." The biography was published shortly after Jobs died in October.
Steve Jobs' wife, Laurene, called Gates after the book came out, to let him know how much his letter had meant to Jobs.
"She said; 'Look, this biography really doesn’t paint a picture of the mutual respect you had.’ And she said he’d appreciated my letter and kept it by his bed," Gates said.

Fell free to leave comments below.

[GommeInc]

Just another story that uses a spade to pick out any odd bits of news about Jobs and Apple - these are literally bottom-of-the-barrel news articles

As lovely as it may be to know Jobs kept a letter from Gates by his side, can we really walk away knowing something we did not know, or feel better about ourselves? Gates and Jobs were always friends, they just had a rivarly which comes with big business. It's really nothing new. The biography Walter Isaacson wrote is something you should pick at with a pinch of salt in between your fingers. It paints a really horrible portrait, which from this news article shows is a complete pile of monkey nuts.

[Logandyer45]

What a choice of words, but as acustomerof Apple Inc. I say Jobs did a great job withTechnologically.

[iBlueBox]

Just another story that uses a spade to pick out any odd bits of news about Jobs and Apple - these are literally bottom-of-the-barrel news articles

As lovely as it may be to know Jobs kept a letter from Gates by his side, can we really walk away knowing something we did not know, or feel better about ourselves? Gates and Jobs were always friends, they just had a rivarly which comes with big business. It's really nothing new. The biography Walter Isaacson wrote is something you should pick at with a pinch of salt in between your fingers. It paints a really horrible portrait, which from this news article shows is a complete pile of monkey nuts.

I liked Walter Isscasons autobiography on Steve. I found it pretty honest.

[GommeInc]

I liked Walter Isscasons autobiography on Steve. I found it pretty honest.

It was honest, but it had a way of sensationalising a few things like their friendship - the world knew they were friends with an obvious rivalry, competition is natural in business It's an odd article anyway, literally bottom-of-the-barrel/slow news day stuff. Media companies have a habit of digging up business tycoons, philosophers, politicians and scientists, posting a dull article about stuff the world already knew, and then moving on. Plus it wasn't an autobiography, Jobs didn't write it - loads seem to like calling it one though

[peteyt]

The funny thing is both Apple and Microsoft have been known to steal ideas from each other and other companies. I bet both these people didn't have much to do with the general product and they where just the person running the company, promoting the product.

Also didn't realise Microsoft actually own a very small percentage of Apple.Surprisedthey allowed this.

[Chippiewill]

I bet both these people didn't have much to do with the general product and they where just the person running the company, promoting the product.

They may not have had much direct influence in say coding their operating systems or working out how to pack in the hardware in the later stage but they had A LOT to do with the "general product". Particularly Steve Jobs who lead the design concept around almost every product at Apple really, I get the impression that after sort of 2000 ish Bill Gates stepped away from the managing projects side though.

Also didn't realise Microsoft actually own a very small percentage of Apple.Surprisedthey allowed this.

Apple and Microsoft used to work together a lot, Microsoft developed a lot of the utilities for Mac OS, I think there were even Microsoft employees on the team which made the GUI at Apple. It's something to do with one of those past friendly events that mean Microsoft own some Apple stock.

[HotelUser]

The funny thing is both Apple and Microsoft have been known to steal ideas from each other and other companies. I bet both these people didn't have much to do with the general product and they where just the person running the company, promoting the product.

Also didn't realise Microsoft actually own a very small percentage of Apple.Surprisedthey allowed this.

The book suggests that Microsoft frequently stole things from Apple such as beautiful fonts, and it's no secret that Microsoft took a big bite out of what Apple was doing in the first instalment of Windows.

[Recursion]

The book suggests that Microsoft frequently stole things from Apple such as beautiful fonts, and it's no secret that Microsoft took a big bite out of what Apple was doing in the first instalment of Windows.

You mean like the way Apple stole Xerox's idea for the mouse?

[GommeInc]

The book suggests that Microsoft frequently stole things from Apple such as beautiful fonts, and it's no secret that Microsoft took a big bite out of what Apple was doing in the first instalment of Windows.

Pfft, pot-kettle-black moment. Jobs is famously and frequently quoted from that book accusing Android of grand theft for similarities (even though there will be anyway) and accused Google/Android of "grand theft". Surprise, surprise that a notification bar or "centre" that looks surprisingly like the one found on Android appeared on the latest version of iOS That said, the two are different and if it pleases iOS users then fair play, it's their choice - and one thing Jobs never understood is that the consumer has a choice - if they prefer Android over iOS then tough cookies, it's their choice - not his and his egotistical, megalomaniac decision to sway people over to his devices by blotting out the competition as he so wanted to do in Walter Isaacson's book.

That said, Microsoft and Apple, even Samsung and Google, are all guilty of pointless patents that hinder innovation, stifle creativity and create anti-competitive values. The lot of them need thousands of their patents stripped from them - specifically the ones that protect entire concepts. Ones that protect the way of manipulating a device that works within a concept are perfectly fine.

Also didn't realise Microsoft actually own a very small percentage of Apple.Surprisedthey allowed this.

Microsoft saved Apple from bankruptcy in the 1980s by becoming a partner, there's a video on YouTube of Jobs giving a keynote speech being boo'ed at by people in the audience. Apple and Microsoft have always propped each other up anyway. The book and Bill Gates have stated, the two were friendly rivals. It's just a bit perculiar Jobs kept calling Microsoft unoriginal, but if American keynote speeces and conferences are anything to go by, they're just dramatised and theatrical.

You mean like the way Apple stole Xerox's idea for the mouse?

Now now, let's not play the "who stole what from who" game Speckling of which, didn't Apple steal the GUI from Xerox or some other computer company, even though people believe Apple created pretty GUIs?