Gates vs Jobs: no celebrity deathmatch

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 31 May 2007 12:40

Opinion and Analysis

Reports from the lucky few journalists able to see the live, unscripted, on-stage chat between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates say not just the future was discussed, but the past and present, too.

The highly anticipated on-stage interview and chat Wednesday night with Steve Jobs, 52, and Bill Gates, 51, at the D: All Things Digital conference, moderated by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, has finally happened.

Blogged in detail by Harry McCraken at PC World, along with plenty of other reports online, the two tech titans talked of Apple and Microsoft’s past, and their early efforts to work together, with Microsoft’s first software for Apple being the BASIC programming language for the Apple II computer.

Generous and warm to each other, there was gentle ribbing about the PCs vs Mac ads, praise for each other’s strengths and contributions to the industry, each other’s strategies, discussion of post-PC digital devices, tablet, touch and user interface technologies, natural interaction between man and machine, the desire for true software companies to create their own hardware, each man’s respective legacy, talk of future projects that were still under wraps and in development, talk of teleporters and holodecks in sci-fi – and even talk of a secret marriage!

That said, the teleporters were a joke that Gates said Jobs would introduce next, while holodecks were a question from Walt Mossberg on when some of the cool stuff from science fiction would appear. The secret marriage joke was from Jobs, in response to a question from Kara Swisher about the biggest misunderstanding from the public about their relationship.

Gates looked speechless as Jobs replied “We've kept our marriage secret for over a decade now” to great audience laughter, also heard on other occasions as occasional jokes popped up.

Audience members gave the pair a standing ovation, impressed by the friendly nature and obvious warm regard for each other despite their respective reputations as fierce rivals.

Indeed, anyone expecting a ‘celebrity deathmatch’ would have been disappointed, but such a public bust-up would never have been on the cards, it’s just not either man’s style.

Steve Ballmer, on the other hand, with his reported chair throwing antics… but we kid, we kid. We’re sure any chat between Ballmer and Jobs would have been almost as congenial.

So, if Gates and Jobs are to be believed, with no real reason to disbelieve the, the future is looking very technologically advanced, with computers everywhere, offering great power and convenience to users, but in a way that’s much more transparent and natural compared with the paradigm of the keyboard and mouse we’re all familiar today.

Now the talk is over, it’s back to work, as Jobs prepares for the iPhone, new Macs, new iPods, OS X 10.5 and Apple’s other secret projects, while Gates works on the Surface computer, Tablet computing, the Windows Home Server and his philanthropic work.

So, it’s clear that while the Apple vs Microsoft battles will remain a fixture of the computing landscape for some years to come, the two men are seemingly at peace with each other, respectful of each other’s achievements and in different ways continuing to working together on the very things they compete on. In that respect, it’s a funny old world, but we wouldn’t have it any other way!