I am going to highlight several things about Microsoft, Apple, Macintosh, IBM, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and the movies which I think might be very interesting for IT professionals and geeks. The movies are ‘The Pirates of Silicon Valley’ and ‘The Antitrust’. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are two college drop outs. Yet they ceased the future and gave this world a new dimension to explore. Now people live different, they think different, they communicate differently. In this post, I am mixing up some facts, fun and fiction together.
Microsoft Inc.
Microsoft Corporation is an United States-based multinational computer technology corporation founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its most profitable products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software.
Other products are Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Servers, Windows Developer Tools, Microsoft Expression, Business Software, Windows Live, Windows Mobile and more. The company was founded to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Windows line of operating systems. Its products have all achieved near-ubiquity in the desktop computer market.
One commentator notes that Microsoft’s original mission was “a computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software.” Microsoft possesses footholds in other markets, with assets such as the MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the Microsoft Encarta multimedia encyclopedia. The company also markets both computer hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse as well as home entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360, Zune and MSN TV. The company’s initial public stock offering (IPO) was in 1986; the ensuing rise of the company’s stock price has made four billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Current CEO of Microsoft is Steve Ballmer.
Apple Inc.
Apple is an American multinational corporation founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne which designs and manufactures consumer electronics and software products. The company’s best-known hardware products include Macintosh computers, the iPod and the iPhone.
Apple software includes the Mac OS X operating system, the iTunes media browser, the iLife suite of multimedia and creativity software, the iWork suite of productivity software, and Final Cut Studio, a suite of professional audio and film-industry software products. The company operates more than 250 retail stores in nine countries and an online store where hardware and software products are sold.
Apple Inc. has got more or less 35,000 employees. Steve Jobs began working on the Apple Lisa in 1978. Lisa in 1983 became the first personal computer sold to the public with a GUI, but was a commercial failure due to its high price tag and limited software titles. In 1984, Apple next launched the Macintosh.
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed “Big Blue”, is a multinational computer technology and IT consulting corporation founded by Endicott and it’s headquartered is in Armonk, New York, United States. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM has been well known through most of its recent history as the world’s largest computer company and systems integrator.
With 388,000 employees worldwide, IBM is the largest and most profitable information technology employer in the world. IBM holds more patents than any other U.S. based technology company and has eight research laboratories worldwide. The company has scientists, engineers, consultants, and sales professionals in over 170 countries. IBM employees have earned three Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, five National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science. As a chip maker, IBM has been among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders in past years, and in 2007 IBM ranked second in the list of largest software companies in the world.
Bill Gates
William Henry “Bill” Gates III is an American business magnate, philanthropist, author, and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is ranked consistently one of the world’s wealthiest people and the wealthiest overall as of 2009. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 8 percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books. Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution.
Although he is admired by many, a number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive. In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000. Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January, 2000.
He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June, 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates’ last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as non-executive chairman.
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs is an American businessman and co-founder, and CEO of Apple Inc. Jobs is the former CEO of Pixar Animation Studios. In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, created one of the first commercially successful personal computers.
In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of the mouse-driven graphical user interface. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher education and business markets.
NeXT’s subsequent 1997 buyout by Apple Computer Inc. brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he has served as its CEO since then. Steve Jobs was listed as Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful Businessman of 2007.
In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios. He remained CEO and majority shareholder until its acquisition by the Walt Disney Company in 2006. Jobs is currently a member of Walt Disney Company’s Board of Directors.
He is considered a leading figure in both the computer and entertainment industries. Jobs’ history in business has contributed greatly to the myths of the idiosyncratic, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of design and understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. His work driving forward the development of products that are both functional and elegant has earned him a devoted following.
Pirates of Silicon Valley
After watching “Pirates of Silicon Valley” movie I can tell that Bill Gates was Hungry and Foolish.
“Good artists create. Great artists steal.”
Pirates of Silicon Valley is about the History of Apple and Microsoft mainly. This film is the semi-humorous documentary about the men who made the world of technology what it is today, their struggles during college, the founding of their companies, and the ingenious actions they took to build up the global corporate empires of Apple Computer Corporation and Microsoft Inc.
My favorite lines from the movie are:
“You don’t just live a life, you change it, shape it, mold it.”
“You know how you survive? You make people need you.”
“A Mouse! You want Xerox to consider something called a mouse?”
The Antitrust
Truth can be dangerous. Trust can be deadly. A computer programmer’s dream job at a hot Portland-based firm turns nightmarish when he discovers his boss has a secret and ruthless means of dispatching anti-trust problems. Antitrust movie is the fictional story of computer programming genius Milo Hoffman after graduating from Stanford and getting out into the competitive world of computer software. In his contemplation of where to begin his career, he is contacted by Gary Winston whose character is loosely based on Bill Gates.
Winston is the CEO of a company called NURV, and they are on the brink of completing the global communication’s system, Synapse. They need Hoffman to help them meet their launch date, so after much thought and with the full support of his girlfriend Alice, he accepts the job. Tragedy soon after strikes and Milo becomes suspicious of the company he has been wrapped up in. He learns that trusting anyone could be a mistake, and that nothing is as it seems.
My favorite lines from the movie are:
“It’s a binary business. You are one or zero. Alive or dead.”
“Show me some kind of creativity.”
Although I did not like what they called creativity.
Some people like Windows, Some like MAC. MAC users definitely like MAC. Windows users just wonder that how it would feel like to work as a regular MAC user. It is not always easy though. Many users of MAC have claimed that their Hard Disk Drive crashed and there was not enough support by Apple and they had to buy a new drive and their data was lost.
If a MAC gets crashed, not every MAC user can easily fix it, while Windows users can easily fix many hardware/software related issues because Windows is for aslo those users that are not technical. Nothing complicated about it. MAC is a beauty though but it takes time for a new MAC user to get used to its interface and everything.
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