Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 12 May 2009 09:20
Opinion and Analysis
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Does GNU/Linux need a cult figure like Steve Jobs to spread the word and convert the doubters? And does FOSS lend itself to the development of such egos, where technical merit alone does not count?
There are a number of factors to be considered: Apple is a company while FOSS is a loosely knit community; Apple depends on a proprietary software model while FOSS is, well, FOSS; a company has a hierarchical structure while the FOSS ecosystem is much more egalitarian.
Technology companies tend to retain their focus when the founders stay on well beyond the point when the product has made its mark. It is, thus, not surprising that Jobs, the younger of the two Steves who founded Apple, has become synonymous with the brand.
Steve Wozniak was the technical brain behind Apple, the man who developed the Apple I and II. Without him, there would have been no Apple. Jobs was his friend, a few years junior to him, and has great marketing skills - some even describe him as the world's greatest salesman.
But has Apple come to overly depend on Jobs? Is it a good thing when someone comes to symbolise an operating system to this extent?
One could argue that Apple, the company, has an unhealthy dependence on Jobs given the panic that broke out when it was learnt that he was stepping down from the role of chief executive.
Apple shares fell 10 percent when the news broke and there have been an endless stream of articles after that, speculating on what would happen if, God forbid, he is unable to return to the helm.
Apple has had in its ranks a series of brilliant minds, right from Wozniak downwards - Andy Hertzfeld, the late Jef Raskin, Burrell Smith, Randy Wigginton, Bud Tribble, and Rich Page, to name a few. And more recently, there's been the outstanding designer Jonathan Ive. But it's Jobs who has taken centrestage.
