Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011

Hi Bill - I agree 100%. <br />

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I've owned nothing but Macs since, and used nothing but Windows machines at work. In a way, Steve Jobs has been part of most of my life, and the computers at work have always made me extremely grateful for what he did.

While I think Steve has done a tremendous job, the history of computer music should certainly mention such companies and machines as the Commodore 64 and the Amiga. There were truly cheap solutions where everybody could do their own music. <br />

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I have owned most good soundcards for my pcs during the last 20 years. Always going with the best soundcard available. So regardless of Steve, this site would definately have been here. Albeit there would have been fewer posts on how to circumvent iTunes..

We will miss you. Think that this guy actually made computers cool. Not just to use but to look at. He gave us ultimate toys like the iPhone that we used to just dream of owning like a Star Trek communicator or a Dick Tracy phone. And we were always waiting for the next big thing from him............

IRT: Computer Music History<br />

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With respect, without Steve Jobs- you would not have a PC to type on. And without those millions of connected PCs, there would have been far less reason to develop the internet as we know it today. I doubt seriously the internet would exist in the format it exists today. And those sound cards you mention would not exist, because IBM would probably never have taken the idea of PC seriously without the Apple II out there selling like hotcakes. <br />

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And even if they had, computer music would not exist in the same way it does today. No iTunes, no iTunes store, no iPods, probably no MP3 players even, as nobody would have had computers to manage the poor things with. <br />

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I think you do a serious injustice to minimize the contributions of this man. <br />

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Of course, it could just be that I am sad as hell right now and slightly over-reacting. But without Steve Jobs, I doubt the "computer revolution" as we know it would have happened. <br />

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He was one man and he did change the world. <br />

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-Paul<br />

The iPod changed everything in music, just like the Walkman did years before. Steve Jobs will be remembered as a vissionary who changed our lives for the better.

Godspeed Steve Jobs. <br />

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I can't help but compare his accomplishments and their impact on our society to Thomas Edison's impact on his. Steve Wozniak recently said Steve Jobs held over 300 patents which most don't realize.

This was way too quick for me. I thought he had some time left, or maybe even fighting it with the resources he had available. Well, he had a brilliant life; I'm sure it was exhilarating. He will be sorely missed.<br />

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I use his commencement speech at Stanford six years ago as a management tool, as a great example of both leadership and the attitude for a great life...do what you love, and things will happen. "Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later."<br />

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I believe history will be very kind to Steve Jobs (1955 - 2011). May his Life, Energy and Spirit be an eternal reminder that inspired ideas can, indeed, change the world we know. <br />

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My deepest condolences to family, friends, co-workers and the Apple community.<br />

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Sincerely,<br />

Chris<br />

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I just stopped counting at 20 Apple devices in our home. Steve was a great visionary that has changed the way the world does so many things. Steve we all thank you for your amazing contributions to the world. You will be missed!

<i>"I thought he had some time left, or maybe even fighting it with the resources he had available. "</i> - Ted<br />

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You raise a very good point Ted. All the money in the world doesn't really matter in the long run. I'm sure he would have traded it all in for his health.<br />

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Apple was late in the MP3 business, we should thanks the Fraunhoffer institute and Rio for the portable player.<br />

The advent of OS X has had a significant impact upon both my professional and personal lives. Although I have worked with unix systems since the mid 1980s, it was only when OS X came along, and I made the switch (from SGI's Irix, which was a pig of an OS), did I really come to enjoy using computers. As a scientist, a unix operating system really is essential, and when OS X appeared, a fundamental change took place in my office as a young assistant professor: I only needed one computer. <br />

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Before, I had an enormous SGI sitting on a table, for doing science. With its stereographic hardware and dials, it put me back (well, actually, the taxpayer) about $12K. Then I had this little colored hunk of plastic I wrote my papers and grant proposals on my desk.<br />

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OS X came on an extra CD packaged with an iBook I bought just before the Sept 11th attack. I remember, because I gave my first presentation using OS X 10.0.3 or something like that on that day, in Grenada, Spain, right next to the Alhambra. It was the worst talk I ever gave, but it wasn't the fault of the software. I was excessively nervous, so much so that my arch-competitor tried to calm me down. Maybe I sensed something bad was about to happen. Anyway, it was an inauspicious start.<br />

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I eventually made it home and put it on that colored piece of plastic in my office and discovered it really was a real unix operating system, albeit in its infancy. I sort of got lost in it for months at a time, and was determined to get all of the software used in my field of biophysics running on OS X. What evolved from that was <a href="http://sage.ucsc.edu/~wgscott/xtal/wiki">a website</a> (non-profit, academic) that's gotten about 2 million hits since I reformulated it as a wiki in 2006. I work at a university that, frankly, isn't very good at infrastructural support, and I wound up having to learn to do everything the hard way, by myself.<br />

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I think it is fair to say that Steve Jobs and OS X were the only things that made this possible.<br />

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I've primarily used OS X I guess from the bottom up, but at the same time I was a bit of a fan-boy in the sense that I got the first iPod when it came out, the first iPod Touch, the first MacBook Air, the first iPad, etc. I've never regretted any of those purchases, nor the purchase of the 20 or so Apple computers that I've acquired for work and family over the last decade or so.<br />

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My newest adventure has been into computer audio. I really still don't know much of anything about it, but again Apple has made it an enjoyable experience. I bitch and moan about iTunes as much as the next guy, but if you stop to think about it, it transformed the entire music industry, and turned what began as a network of illegal file sharing (Napster), something I regrettably missed out completely, into a legitimate business model. Some might look at this as co-opting, but I think there is a bit more to it than that. In any case, both from the perspective of hardware and software, Apple/Jobs completely changed how I listen to music.<br />

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During that same decade I was starting out as an academic scientist, I had more or less given up on music almost completely. My oldest son now likes music (Pearl Jam, Joy Division, REM), but at the time he couldn't handle it at all, probably as a consequence of being somewhere on the autistic spectrum. OS X provided an escape, but it eventually also provided a relief, and though it he came to enjoy (some) music and now plays cello and electric guitar.<br />

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So, I guess Steve Jobs has had a large, albeit indirect, influence on my life, and that of my family and research group. I never met him, but I've learned a bit about him through a former VP. I doubt I would have liked him personally. Obsessive secrecy and temper tantrums aren't my favorite personality traits. But as I continue to age, I realize likability isn't really that much of an asset.<br />

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I'm kind of worried about the future of my favorite platform.<br />

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A friend once said to me that Apple and The Gap were the only companies that successfully marketed to my generation. Hopefully Apple doesn't go the way of The Gap.<br />

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Early in my hi-fi hobby (1976?), I attended a stereo show at the Sheraton Hotel in Portland, Oregon. A friend of mine from Reed was there. So was Apple Computer. They had a display in one of the rooms. I remember thinking it strange for a computer manufacturer to be at a stereo show. Now I think how completely fitting it was. I should've bought stock.<br />

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Thanks Steve.<br />

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Randy<br />

From my iMac

I remember my first apple laptop, the Pismo that I bought for my wife in 1999. I couldn't believe that we could really watch a DVD on our computer. <br />

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It is sad news to hear about Steve's death. It is a shock, actually. His products have become so monumentally prominent that life without Apple is unthinkable. <br />

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These times promote reflection. And sadly, Steve's loved ones must be absolutely devastated.<br />

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How do we honor our dearly departed? Should we cry? Should we rejoice in their passing to another existence? Difficult questions. <br />

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Surely, we grieve. And no one more than Steve's family. I hope they find solace int he extraordinary life Steve led and the incomparably positive impact he has had on our world.<br />

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There is no Nobel prize for mathematics and there is none for technology. But undeniably, Steve deserves an honor befitting his profound contributions to society. Perhaps, the tears of the world are enough.<br />

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ron

I'm not sure I would classify early MP3 audio players as having much of a business model. As I recall, there were few options for purchasing music other than on CD. The MP3 format was being used as a vehicle for rampant music piracy over peer-to-peer networks. <br />

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It is true Apple was not first with portable player. However, Apple is by far the most successful because Steve Jobs had the vision to create an entire ecosystem for downloadable music / content. It was Steve's vision to create the ecosystem that set Apple at the top of the portable player market.

Mftech's comment may have been relevant if this thread was discussing the history and relevance of mp3. But given the fact that we are talking about a man who has just passed away and whose contributions encompass much more than specific audio formats, it comes across as rather crass given the timing and circumstance...

He had two bite at the apple and got it right - perhaps at both counts. Apple now means more to most than one can fathom. <br />

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As I bid this mountain of a man good bye and thank you, I dread for what he has left behind. Apple is too much of one man's vision than a corporate success. Corporation such as Apple who trade at the cutting edge (perhaps) cannot survive without a maverick at the top....

"Apple was late in the MP3 business"<br />

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as far as I can tell, there was no significant MP3 business until the advent of the iTunes Music store in 2003, unless you call pirating of music 'business'.<br />

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As for thanking Rio for the portable player, as it turns out they didn't invent the mp3 player - they were two years late on that.<br />

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Neither were they first to market with a commercial mp3 player - they were some months late on that.<br />

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so, let's recap shall we - Rio took someone else's idea, then brought their own version to market, and were more successful than their predecessors, which is the same as Steve Jobs and Apple did, except that Apple's contribution (developing a business model for selling music instead of stealing it) launched a multi-billion dollar industry. <br />

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Meanwhile, the company producing the Rio filed for chapter 11 the same year that the iTunes music store was started - 2003. <br />

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Alas, Apple didn't create the marketplace fast enough to save the Rio.<br />

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For those who wonder why Rio was still around past 2003, DNM picked up the remnants of Rio after chapter 11, but then pulled the Rio product set from the market in mid-2005.<br />

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It's not enough to have just admired the Master's vision, but he also had the drive to go get it! Like many, I cringed at some of the Bad Boy behavior. And as a customer I didn't always appreciate the direction or wait times for features and developments. I do have great appreciation for the new frontier they continue to bring us that touch many of our lives.<br />

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I remember watching with admiration, an interview Steve did 'round 2009 and he spoke about his drive from Emeryville back to Cupertino for a second run. And how shocked he was at the changed culture that had taken place at Apple.<br />

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Many more people there had begun to make good money and ALL of them had grown content. He very much wanted to see employees succeed in their lives. But rather than adopt "Good for you" attitude with them, he immediately threw it down!<br />

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Listen up everybody! From now on, I'm running this company like a start-up! Think you're good? I think you're better... and expect better!<br />

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Just summing up what he said, not a direct quote but you get the idea. Like Kenny "The Jet" Smith once famously said about the Lakers... "They're not hungry anymore, they're eating soup with a spoon!"<br />

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And Steve observed this upon his arrival - he surveyed the parking lot, peoples cubicles, wardrobe, meetings and work schedules. The employees were behaving as if they/the company had made it (time to enjoy the fruits).<br />

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A tyrant? Perhaps. But he really did have these employees' best interests at heart. And for us Computer Audiophiles, that famous music hire at Apple earlier this year was timely. Can anyone see that happening in a post Steve era?

Steve Jobs has not only brought Apple to the skies with his great vision, but has also inspired the whole IT industry.<br />

He is given as an example in so many product management trainings, methods...<br />

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He has changed the way to think the computer/user relationship, from the old way of looking for performance only to striving to make the best possible user experience, looking for perfection even at the highest level of detail, for having us get the best moments using the products.<br />

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From Apple developer manual:<br />

<i>A great user interface follows human interface design principles that are based on the way people—users—think and work, not on the capabilities of the device.</i><br />

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The computer at the service of the human, and not the opposite...<br />

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Thanks Steve

When I heard the news, I realised how normal it felt to use Steve's creations on a daily basis without ever really thinking about it. That alone is something special. I agree with Bill that I'm sure Apple is in good hands, but the shining light behind it has left us now.<br />

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When I get home from work tonight, I think I'll be switching on the Macmini with differnt thoughts to the ususal, but mixed with a sense of pride that his creations are in my home and have given me and will continue to give me many more years of enjoyment.<br />

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Condolences to his family and friends<br />

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RIP Steve.<br />

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<p>I first got the news of Steve Jobs passing when I came to this site and was shocked and saddened to see his picture on the front page.</p><br />

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<p>I bought my first Mac in 1984 and I've pretty much only bought Apple or NeXT machines since, with the only exceptions being a Linux plug computer and an HP netbook. I am a computer programmer and have used these machine to learn programming languages and then get work. Without Steve Jobs and his companies NeXT and Apple my career and life would have been very different. In the 1980s the Macintosh had some amazing graphical programming environments such as MacPascal, HyperCard, Allegro Object Logo, Lightship Scheme, AlphaPop Pop-11, Icon, Smalltalk. There was nothing else like it if you were a programming language geek. In the 1990s the NeXTStep Objective-C based programming environment was so far ahead of anything else. If you were a NeXT programmer you got to work with the best people, and the work was amongst the highest paid in the industry. Without Steve Jobs I would have never been a rich contractor at that time and able to buy some very nice pieces of expensive HiFi kit, which I still have today. It is almost spooky how much the current Mac OS X still has in common with its ancestor.</p><br />

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<p>I had intended to use the Linux plug computer for my music, and while I was getting it set up with an HRT Music Streamer, I tried a iTunes on a MacBook I had lying around. I found the MacBook worked so well with software like XLD, Max, Decibel, BitKeeper and so on that I never got round to using the Linux computer. I really think Apple make the best general purpose machines for using in a HiFi system. I've recently bought an iPod Touch and I've installed the Remote app on it, and it about the best remote control I can possibly imagine.</p><br />

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<p>Here is a picture of <a href="http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0712/y_walker08.html">Steve Jobs with his HiFi in 1982</a>. The caption under the picture says: <i>STEVE JOBS AT HOME IN 1982 — “This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.” —Steve Jobs </i></p><br />

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<p>I think the deck looks like an Oracle, and maybe the speakers are Magnapans or similar flat panels. Maybe other people can identify:</p> <br />

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<img src="http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0712/images/walker/062b.jpg"<br />

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This man has made me interested in technology and brought a lot of happiness with it (mainly music)<br />

A true visionary and like any good businessman he tied people into his products, people can criticise that or they could learn from someone who had several billion quid in their bank.<br />

R.I.P

I wonder how many Nobel laureates rely on Macintoshes for their work? Surely that would shed some light on the significance of Steve Jobs' life.