4 ms·

Respect for Jonathan, the guy who successfully got Steve Jobs to shut up and back up.

sabat 17y ago
Sorry, but I have a helluva lot more respect for Steve Jobs than I do for Jonathan. Steve has legit bragging rights. What can Jonathan brag about? Taking $12 million in severance from Sun while his employees got two months of pay at most?
- runT1ME 17y ago
  I thought Jonathan's vision of Open Source was pretty interesting. He may not have had time to implement his vision, and he was handed a brilliant but broken company to work with. I've followed his blog closely for the last few years, and I would say he comes off as one of the most in-touch CEO's out there.
- jayair 17y ago
  Whether or not we respect him for what he has done in Sun, through this post he gave us a window into a world that for most of us is completely hidden. He also showed that it takes balls to stand up to the likes of Apple, MS etc. And just for that he has my respect.
- jonknee 17y ago
  And I have a helluva lot more respect for Bill Gates than either of them. He's done something worthwhile with the riches.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    He's done something worthwhile with a fairly small portion of the riches and is using that as a very successful propaganda machine to counter his negative image. Please keep in mind that this was the CEO under which a number of very questionable actions (anti-trust, SCO) were effected.
    - jonknee 17y ago
      Propaganda? Please. Outside of the open source tech bubble Bill G doesn't/didn't have a negative image to counter. He has given away ~$30 billion which is not a small portion at all (> half of his current net worth). It's his main focus and he will likely donate teh bulk of his remaining fortune. iMacs and iPods don't save lives, providing vaccinations saves millions. http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/01/29/davos.bill.gates.donates/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/01/29/davos.bill.gates.dona... In the innovative products race Steve Jobs wins. In the does good things race Bill Gates wins. It's admirable.
      - jacquesm 17y ago
        Not all of these are gifts, plenty of them (especially the larger ones) are structured as investments. If a mafioso gives his money to charity do you think that qualifies him for sainthood ? Ask the stacker guys if they think Bill Gates is a nice person. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stac_Electronics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stac_Electronics
      - nailer 17y ago
        > Outside of the open source tech bubble Bill G doesn't/didn't have a negative image to counter. His company is a convicted monopolist by the US government,not by OSS fans. More anecdotally, most people acknowledge that Windows is pretty shit these days.
        ewald 17y ago
        I own a MacBook Pro, but use Win 7 at work. I think it's great, and have considered switching back at home.
- gvb 17y ago
  Jonathan answered that question directly in his blog: "My response was simple. "Steve, I was just watching your last presentation, and Keynote looks identical to Concurrence – do you own that IP?" Concurrence was a presentation product built by Lighthouse Design, a company I’d help to found and which Sun acquired in 1996. [...] Steve had used Concurrence for years, and as Apple built their own presentation tool, it was obvious where they’d found inspiration." (emphasis mine)
- bad_user 17y ago
  It's hard salvaging a shipwreck after Scott McNealy was done with it ;) And regardless of any merits Jonathan had while CEO at SUN (starting 2006), under his guidance we've got open-source Java and OpenSolaris, not to mention increased focus on other open-source products like OpenOffice. So for the rest of us developers, it was a bigger win than anything Apple did from 2006 until now. Also, your comment got "fanboy" written all over it.
ecq 17y ago
one sided story. I don't believe he got Steve Jobs to "shut up". The Open Group tried and failed to sue Apple over the use of the Unix trademark.

sabat 17y ago

Sorry, but I have a helluva lot more respect for Steve Jobs than I do for Jonathan. Steve has legit bragging rights. What can Jonathan brag about? Taking $12 million in severance from Sun while his employees got two months of pay at most?

runT1ME 17y ago
I thought Jonathan's vision of Open Source was pretty interesting. He may not have had time to implement his vision, and he was handed a brilliant but broken company to work with. I've followed his blog closely for the last few years, and I would say he comes off as one of the most in-touch CEO's out there.
jayair 17y ago
Whether or not we respect him for what he has done in Sun, through this post he gave us a window into a world that for most of us is completely hidden. He also showed that it takes balls to stand up to the likes of Apple, MS etc. And just for that he has my respect.
jonknee 17y ago
And I have a helluva lot more respect for Bill Gates than either of them. He's done something worthwhile with the riches.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  He's done something worthwhile with a fairly small portion of the riches and is using that as a very successful propaganda machine to counter his negative image. Please keep in mind that this was the CEO under which a number of very questionable actions (anti-trust, SCO) were effected.
  - jonknee 17y ago
    Propaganda? Please. Outside of the open source tech bubble Bill G doesn't/didn't have a negative image to counter. He has given away ~$30 billion which is not a small portion at all (> half of his current net worth). It's his main focus and he will likely donate teh bulk of his remaining fortune. iMacs and iPods don't save lives, providing vaccinations saves millions. http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/01/29/davos.bill.gates.donates/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/01/29/davos.bill.gates.dona... In the innovative products race Steve Jobs wins. In the does good things race Bill Gates wins. It's admirable.
    - jacquesm 17y ago
      Not all of these are gifts, plenty of them (especially the larger ones) are structured as investments. If a mafioso gives his money to charity do you think that qualifies him for sainthood ? Ask the stacker guys if they think Bill Gates is a nice person. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stac_Electronics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stac_Electronics
    - nailer 17y ago
      > Outside of the open source tech bubble Bill G doesn't/didn't have a negative image to counter. His company is a convicted monopolist by the US government,not by OSS fans. More anecdotally, most people acknowledge that Windows is pretty shit these days.
      - ewald 17y ago
        I own a MacBook Pro, but use Win 7 at work. I think it's great, and have considered switching back at home.
gvb 17y ago
Jonathan answered that question directly in his blog: "My response was simple. "Steve, I was just watching your last presentation, and Keynote looks identical to Concurrence – do you own that IP?" Concurrence was a presentation product built by Lighthouse Design, a company I’d help to found and which Sun acquired in 1996. [...] Steve had used Concurrence for years, and as Apple built their own presentation tool, it was obvious where they’d found inspiration." (emphasis mine)
bad_user 17y ago
It's hard salvaging a shipwreck after Scott McNealy was done with it ;) And regardless of any merits Jonathan had while CEO at SUN (starting 2006), under his guidance we've got open-source Java and OpenSolaris, not to mention increased focus on other open-source products like OpenOffice. So for the rest of us developers, it was a bigger win than anything Apple did from 2006 until now. Also, your comment got "fanboy" written all over it.

ecq 17y ago

one sided story. I don't believe he got Steve Jobs to "shut up". The Open Group tried and failed to sue Apple over the use of the Unix trademark.