RIP Steve Jobs

This.

Anyone who's ever been a computer geek has just lost one of their icons :(

edited 5th Oct '11 5:24:30 PM by Midgetsnowman

Didn't Steve Jobs also have a stake in Pixar?

So one of the giants has fallen. He will be greatly missed.

I'm suddenly flooded with fond memories working with a ornery Apple IIc, cobbled together out of two busted IIc's to make one serviceable unit - lucky for me, I had the 80-column memory unit, the stock display SUCKED. Then, my friend lugging around his external hard-drive to Middle School, all 450 megsbytes of it, like a boss. Playing Oregon Trail, writing my reports on a nice barely-used Mac Classic II tucked in a lonely corner of the the IBM-clone workstation lab. I always liked the black-and-white display... nice and clear, easy to read. Playing multiplayer Marathon 2 in the school's A/V Yearbook lab after hours, and drooling over a PowerMacintosh in the Apple store in town. Also, that I really liked the Newton. Same friend had one, as he worked at that Apple store for awhile.

And then I turned PC and didn't look back - hard to justify the price, although I never thought they were bad products - just out of my price range.

You'll be missed, Mr. Jobs.

edited 5th Oct '11 5:29:39 PM by pvtnum11

I guess... I mean, on the one hand, I feel sadness and pain at the idea that such creativity and potential, although still exercised in his time on Earth, is now gone.

On the other, I am reminded that we are here today morning one man of great importance, as countless more pass on each minute of each day.

edited 5th Oct '11 5:30:26 PM by USAF713

@Tuef: Now you went and made me all nostalgic for my youth.

those countless others didnt help bring the personal computer into existence, mind.

edited 5th Oct '11 5:31:49 PM by Midgetsnowman

Oh no...

I've been an Apple girl since I was 7. I played with art programs on my mother's ancient iMac. I got a beautiful new iMac for my graduation present from high school. I got a Macbook for college. I've had an iPod since 8th grade.

Rest in peace, Steve Jobs. You were my hero.

The first of the Big Five in computing falls. Wozniak, Ballmer (Palmer? The Microsoft backer beyond Gates), Gates and Torvalds remain.

USAF: Even the so-called 'little people' are mourned in their passing, by someone - family, a friend, a co-worker... Very few pass on without making anyone around saddened or otherwise affected by their loss.

edited 5th Oct '11 5:33:10 PM by pvtnum11

So you only matter if you make it into the history books, Midget?

Sure, they are mourned, but only a slight few ever matter in the world. This always goes without question; it is simply taken for granted that, save a lucky, lucky fraction of us, we will all simply be forgotten by history.

This does not cheapen Mr. Jobs' death, or even suggest that he should not be mourned. I simply wish we all mourned each and every passing like that of our favorite famous person...

If only each person could make the impact Mr. Jobs did.

Meanwhile, people around the country are starving to death, but this sandwich tastes delicious. What's the point?

Good to know we brought that mentality into a thread like this early. Cheers.

@USAF: everyone matters to someone. I'm mourning someone I've idolized since I was little, doesnt mean I dont on some intellectual level understand other people die. Thing is, its harder to mourn the passing of nameless people you've never met or seen.

edited 5th Oct '11 5:42:04 PM by Midgetsnowman

I feel sad and even kind of shaken about this. I just... I don't know.

RIP Steve Jobs.

I'm glad you think trying to appreciate the greater picture is bad.

~shrug~

I don't think "it's hard" should be an excuse, here...

edited 5th Oct '11 5:43:36 PM by USAF713

I feel like there's a joke here about death and retirement. I think there's a trope for that.

Anyhow, I am rather surprised by this passing, another brilliant mind gone into the great divide and his legacy shall continue forth in the evil known only as his apple products. The man is truly immortal.

And I apologize for being one of the people to already be cracking jokes. I feel no connection to Mr. Jobs but I do respect his mind and influence and successes and the part he played in Pixar.

If you (generic term "you") have nothing but snark, bitterness and sarcasm to toss around, I suggest you find another thread to comment in.

Yeah let's not start sniping at each other, folks.

edited 5th Oct '11 5:50:06 PM by MarkVonLewis

As someone that got his start in computing on an Apple IIe in 1983, and has always been a fan of the Mac even during the bad old days of the early 1990s, this is really sad. Even though most of my computers have been PCs out of economic or institutional necessity (I wasn't able to buy a computer new at all until 1995, and I'm typing this now on a Gateway laptop running Debian), I've always admired Jobs' attention to detail and flair for great ideas, even if he wasn't that technical and didn't make the best decisions at times. He and Woz were some of my childhood heroes, just for founding Apple, and his influence (either directly or otherwise) has gone really far. Pixar, the iMac, FireWire, NEXTSTEP and OS X, the iGadgets, even little things not many people notice; while it's not OS X, Debian seems like an apropos second choice, as all of its releases are named after Toy Story characters.

And even bigger than that: The PC itself. The IBM Personal Computer, hardware-wise, was largely an Apple II clone with a different processor installed, and Microsoft Windows wouldn't be where it was today, ironically, if it wasn't for their support of the Mac from the beginning. Pretty much all modern smartphones, no matter what OS they run, owe something to Apple due not just to the iPhone, but to their cofounding of ARM in 1992.

Godspeed, Mr. Jobs, and thanks for the great ideas.

edited 5th Oct '11 5:55:43 PM by lee4hmz

Never was a big fan of apple, but it still sucks that one of the earliest in the field is now gone :(

While I have never owned an Apple product (having iTunes installed doesn't really count), I do appreciate the influence Apple and Steve Jobs have had the past decades. May he rest in peace.

Also, I'm surprised that there's no mention on this on neither Pixar's or Disney's sites, considering that, you know, he essentially owned both companies.

This...this is just so unexpected that I don't know WHAT to say...

RIP, Steve Jobs.

@pvtnum 11 Besides a bad joke or two thrown in there my condolences are wholly genuine.