The relationship between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had its ups and downs over many years until the death of the former Apple CEO. Even a betrayal by Microsoft did not change the mutual respect between both visionaries.
The acquaintance between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates began after the founding years of Apple and Microsoft in the early 1980s and ended in 2011 with the death of Steve Jobs, which still arouses great public interest today.
During this period of around 30 years, Gates and Jobs rarely agreed and often criticized each other. Even an alleged betrayal by Microsoft did not change the fact that both men respected each other.
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Jobs accuses Gates of treason: Apple vs. Microsoft
What did this betrayal look like? Around 40 years ago, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs worked closely together. Microsoft developed software for the then popular Apple II computer, which was infected with a computer virus at the time that actually only wanted to annoy people.
Apple and Microsoft continued their collaboration with the release of the Apple Macintosh in 1984 as the first computer with a graphical user interface for everyone.
According to Gates, at times more Microsoft employees, whom he rarely gave a break, were working on a Mac than at Apple itself.
A year later, in 1985, when Microsoft announced its own operating system, Windows 1.0, with a graphical user interface, a major argument arose between the two visionaries. Steve Jobs saw this as a betrayal of Apple and accused Bill Gates of stealing the idea.
What did Gates say about the allegations? As with the Internet, which he once had to explain on TV, Bill Gates recognized the potential that the graphical interface had for PCs and did not want to leave the field to Apple alone.
The former Microsoft boss was unimpressed by the allegations. He knew that the idea for this did not come from Apple itself, but that Jobs was originally inspired by the Xerox PARC Laboratories research facility.
Well, Steve, I think there’s more than one way to look at this. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV and found out you had already stolen it.
Bill Gates on the alleged theft of ideas (source: businessinsider.de) Gates and Jobs were competitors who valued each other
What was the relationship between the two CEOs like after this dispute? Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were initially not on good terms with each other. In public, both criticized each other as people, but also the products that the company brought onto the market.
We will be entering a dark computer age for about twenty years [wenn Microsofts Windows-Betriebssystem gewinnt und Jobs zwischenzeitliche PC-Firma NeXT den Kampf um das beste Betriebssystem verliert]
Steve Jobs on the market launch of Windows 1.0 (Source: businessinsider.de)
Secretly, this public criticism spurred her on. Gates admired Jobs’ visual taste. And Jobs, in turn, was impressed by Gates’ intelligence. After Steve Jobs’ death, Bill Gates looked back on their time together and found only words of praise for Jobs.
I respect Steve, we have to work together. We pushed each other, even as competitors. Nothing [von dem, was er sagte,] bothers me.
Bill Gates about Steve Jobs (Source: businessinsider.de)
Through their (joint) work, a strange relationship with ups and downs developed over the years.
Bill Gates didn’t just have to accept criticism from Steve Jobs. An Apple employee also didn’t have a good word to say about Gates’ previous work: Bill Gates and Microsoft had to secretly program a video game for IBM – Apple said: “The most embarrassing game of all time”