A Tribute to Steve Jobs

We all have recently been given the sad news that Steve Jobs, one of the co-creators of Apple Inc., has died. I have decided to take this article and make it a tribute to Steve Jobs by giving a summary of his legacy in the technology world.

 Steve Jobs, along with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, created Apple Inc. in 1976. In 1984, the company put out its first personal pc and advertised it during the super bowl with its "1984" commercial. In May 1985, Steve was fired from Apple. Steve said that being fired (from Apple) was the best thing that could have happened to him.

From here, Steve founded NeXT Computer Inc. in 1985. The computers made here ran a version of Unix with the NeXT desktop environment.

While he was with NeXT, Jobs bought Pixar from  Lucasfilm's computer graphics division. When Toy Story came out, it made Pixar very popular. After Toy Story, Pixar put out many popular and well-received movie. When the contract between Pixar and Disney was nearing it's end around early 2004, there was a failure in trying to negotiate a new partnership, forcing Jobs to look for a new partner with which to distribute Pixar's films. In 2005, Bob Iger replaced Michael Eisner and things were quickly back in order between Disney and Pixar again.In 2006, Disney bought Pixar and gave Jobs a seat on the Board of Directors.

Eventually, Apple bought NeXT in 1996. After Apple CEO Gil Amelio was ousted, Steve took over the post of CEO. Jobs also changed the licensing scheme for Mac OS, killing off any hope of legal "macintosh clones" and making Mac OS X run only on macintosh computers (made by Apple).

Jobs was the one who came up with the idea for the iPod, which first came out in 2001. At first, it was for Mac OS X systems only and Windows was not supported due to the fact that iTunes was only made for Mac OS X. Eventually, Apple decided to make a version of iTunes for Windows and this made the iPod available to more people.

In 2007, Apple came out with the first generation of the iPhone. This changed the idea that smartphones were for everyone and not only for their original target audience, mainly professionals and software developers/technology geeks. Unfortunately, this also started the phenomenon of people buying smartphones from cell phone carriers and later complaining that the smartphone is "too advanced for me".

Steve Jobs was also an advocate for recycling e-waste. He responded to poor e-waste recycling programs by saying that any Apple store would accept iPods for recycling for free. Later, in 2006, this was expanded to any customer who buys a mac as well.


In August 2011, Steve resigned from Apple due to health problems. He still kept a post on the Board of Directors for Apple, and his influence on the company was still well and alive. On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs passed away at the age of 56.

Let me now close with some thoughts of mine: The company that Steve helped to found, Apple, is still alive and going strong and will probably be going strong for many years in the future. Even if you don't like Apple, you must admit that Steve was one of the ones that really impacted the landscape of the world of technology. I wish Steve's family well in this sad time in their lives.

Steve Jobs, rest in peace. Réquiem ætérnam dona eis Dómine; et lux perpétua lúceat eis. Requiéscat in pace. Amen.



Edit: I found an obituary that Bloomberg (mistakenly) published (and quickly rescinded) about Steve Jobs back in 2008. Perhaps you will find it interesting. Here's the link: http://gaw.kr/qJ5wYd