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Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were at the right place at the right time with the right resources. Now we have the internet and everyone is connected, it is harder b

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were at the right place at the right time with the right resources. Now we have the internet and everyone is connected, it is harder because of the competition.

spoonjim 4y ago
Bill Gates was an insanely good programmer and Steve Jobs was an insanely good product manager. Yes they also had the right circumstances to succeed, just like J.S. Bach.
mandeepj 4y ago
You think they did not have competition while IBM was the gorilla in front of them?
- laumars 4y ago
  IBM were a mainframe company back then. Both Apple and Microsoft were already household names in the personal micro computer world before IBM entered the market. Source: I lived through that era writing software for micro computers.
  - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
    IBM was a household name in the 80s. I’m not sure which era you’re talking about, though.
    - doctor_eval 4y ago
      The Apple II came out in 1977. The IBM PC in 1981. Until the PC, IBM might have been known by people but nobody had an IBM at home.
      - dboreham 4y ago
        From memory, IBM PCs were not things people had at home until much later. Actually they didn't really show up outside of word processing and spreadsheets in a business setting, in the early days (so for example University CS people were using VAXen and Sun workstations, not PCs).
        TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
        Household object is not the same as household name. IBM transformed computers between the 1950s and 1980s, and people were aware of that even if they did not own an IBM product. They were a mega corporation with significant advertising and marketing budgets.
        laumars 4y ago
        They were but that was never in dispute. The point I made was that IBM were slow to release a home machine. And even when they eventually did release their first PC, it was still viewed more as a business machine. meanwhile Apple and Microsoft (amongst others) were already established in the home computer market. It took years for the PC to become dominant. Frankly their dominance isn’t even because of IBM but instead because every other manufacturer ripped off IBMs design. Some of us old timers still call those macHines “IBM-compatible” since the term “personal computer” wasn’t always specifically referring to an x86+BIOS, like it later came to be in the 90s. I do miss the 70s and 80s era of computing. Everything felt new and magical. It was like your imagination was the only limit. A bit like web development in the 90s and AI these days. As nice as it when an industry matures, there is a lot of fun to be had in the early days when everyone is doing silly things because there’s nobody to tell us otherwise.
- c0nducktr 4y ago
  You think it's harder fighting one gorilla or a thousand chimpanzees?

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were at the right place at the right time with the right resources. Now we have the internet and everyone is connected, it is harder because of the competition.

spoonjim 4y ago

Bill Gates was an insanely good programmer and Steve Jobs was an insanely good product manager. Yes they also had the right circumstances to succeed, just like J.S. Bach.

mandeepj 4y ago

You think they did not have competition while IBM was the gorilla in front of them?

laumars 4y ago
IBM were a mainframe company back then. Both Apple and Microsoft were already household names in the personal micro computer world before IBM entered the market. Source: I lived through that era writing software for micro computers.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  IBM was a household name in the 80s. I’m not sure which era you’re talking about, though.
  - doctor_eval 4y ago
    The Apple II came out in 1977. The IBM PC in 1981. Until the PC, IBM might have been known by people but nobody had an IBM at home.
    - dboreham 4y ago
      From memory, IBM PCs were not things people had at home until much later. Actually they didn't really show up outside of word processing and spreadsheets in a business setting, in the early days (so for example University CS people were using VAXen and Sun workstations, not PCs).
      - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
        Household object is not the same as household name. IBM transformed computers between the 1950s and 1980s, and people were aware of that even if they did not own an IBM product. They were a mega corporation with significant advertising and marketing budgets.
        laumars 4y ago
        They were but that was never in dispute. The point I made was that IBM were slow to release a home machine. And even when they eventually did release their first PC, it was still viewed more as a business machine. meanwhile Apple and Microsoft (amongst others) were already established in the home computer market. It took years for the PC to become dominant. Frankly their dominance isn’t even because of IBM but instead because every other manufacturer ripped off IBMs design. Some of us old timers still call those macHines “IBM-compatible” since the term “personal computer” wasn’t always specifically referring to an x86+BIOS, like it later came to be in the 90s. I do miss the 70s and 80s era of computing. Everything felt new and magical. It was like your imagination was the only limit. A bit like web development in the 90s and AI these days. As nice as it when an industry matures, there is a lot of fun to be had in the early days when everyone is doing silly things because there’s nobody to tell us otherwise.
c0nducktr 4y ago
You think it's harder fighting one gorilla or a thousand chimpanzees?