An interesting prospective from Jobs...

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

sent to me with no information on redistribution, so I will assume fair use djf


 Interview with Steve Jobs. Contents:


  o On Object Oriented Programming:
  o On Personal Digital Assistants:
  o On Microsoft and Windows:
  o On the PowerPC:
  o On the Internet:
  o On whether advancing technology has made the world a better place:
  o On the burden of trying to repeat the phenomenal success of the Mac:


  Subject: Interview with Steve Jobs
  Source:  Rolling Stone, June 16, 1994,  pg. 73


  The founder of Apple and NeXT gives his thoughts on the state of the
  industry. Jobs is described as a devoted family man and one eager to
  distance himself from his reputation as the "Wunderkind" of the '80s. Some
  quotes:


  o On Object Oriented Programming: "In my 20 years in this industry, I
    have never seen a revolution as profound as this. You can build software
    literally five to ten times faster, and that software is much more
    reliable, much easier to maintain and much more powerful ... All software
    will be written using this object technology someday. No question about
    it. You can argue about how many years it's going to take, you can
    argue who the winners and losers are going to be in terms of the
    companies in this industry, but I don't think a rational person can
    argue that all software will not be built this way."


  o On Personal Digital Assistants: "At $1,500 a pop with a cellular modem
    in them, I don't think too many people are going to buy three or four
    for their family. The people who are going to buy them in the first five
    years are mobile professionals. And the problem is, the psychology of
    the people who develop these things is just not going to enable them to
    put on suits and hop on planes and go to Federal Express and pitch their
    product."


  o On Microsoft and Windows: "Microsoft has had two goals in the last 10
    years. One was to copy the Mac, and the other was to copy Lotus'
    success in the spreadsheet - basically the applications business. And
    over the course of the last 10 years, Microsoft accomplished both of
    those goals. And now they are completely lost ... Windows is the worst
    development environment ever made. And Microsoft doesn't have any
    interest in making it better, because the fact that it's really hard
    to develop apps in Windows plays to Microsoft's advantage. You can't
    have small teams of programmers writing word processors and spreadsheets
    - it might upset their competitive advantage. And they can afford to have
    200 people working on a project, no problem."


  o On the PowerPC: "It's a Pentium. The PowerPC and the Pentium are
    equivalent, plus or minus 10 or 20 percent, depending on which day you
    measure them. They're the same thing. So Apple has a Pentium. That's
    good. Is it three or four or five times better? No. Will it ever be?
    No. But it beats being behind. Which was where the Motorola 68000
  architecture
    was unfortunately being relegated. It keeps them at least equal, but
    it's not a compelling advantage."


  o On the Internet: "The Internet is nothing new. It has been happening
    for 10 years. Finally, now, the wave is cresting on the general computer
    user. And I love it. I think the den is far more interesting than the
    living room. Putting the Internet into people's houses is going to be
    really what the information superhighway is all about, not digital
    convergence in the set-top box. All that's going to do is put the video
    rental stores out of business and save me a trip to rent my movie. I'm
    not very excited about that. I'm not excited about home shopping. I'm
    very excited about having the Internet in my den"


  o On whether advancing technology has made the world a better place:
    "We've given individuals and small groups  equally powerful tools to
    what the largest, most heavily funded organizations in the world have.
    And that trend is going to continue. You can buy for under $10,000
    today a computer that is just as powerful, basically, as one anyone in
    the world can get their hands on. The second thing we've done is the
    communications side of it. By creating this electronic web, we have
    flattened out again the difference between the lone voice and the very
    large organized voice. We have allowed people who are not part of an
    organization to communicate and pool their interests and thoughts and
    energies together and start to act as if they were a virtual organization.
    So I think this technology has been extremely rewarding. And I don't
    think it's anywhere near over."


  o On the burden of trying to repeat the phenomenal success of the Mac:
    "The Macintosh was sort of like this wonderful romance in your life that
    you once had - and that produced about 10 million children. In a way
    it will never be over in your life. You'll still smell that romance
    every morning when you get up. And when you open the window, the cool
    air will hit your face, and you'll smell that romance in the air. And
    you'll see your children around, and you feel good about it. And
    nothing will ever make you feel bad about it ... But I also think that
    what we're now may turn out in the end to be more profound. Because the
    Macintosh was the agent of change to bring computers to the rest of us
    with its graphical user interface. That was very important. But now
    the industry is up against a really big closed door. On the other side
    is a world so rich from this well of software that will spring up that
    the true promise of many of the things we started, even with the Apple
    II, will finally start to be realized."