Steve Jobs was an incredible man. He, more than anyone else, drove the integration of computer technology with every day life for the average person. I second the Edison analogy above, Jobs will be remembered as a titan of the transition into the information age.

A very sad day to lose such an inspiring out-of-the-box thinker, who turned visions of what could be, into reality.
What more could a man achieve in a lifetime.
Rest in peace Steve!

Perhaps I'm a rude Microsoft guy but the news is to me... just news.


The simple fact that he couldn't get fixed with his budget... sure as hell I'm weird... got something good into it.

Sure he got a good life. What's the problem? It was only a matter of time, I was expecting this months ago, I was prepared. Every story must come to an end and considering the daily difficulties involved in cancer and pain... if you believe in afterlife, I think you'll have no trouble in accepting he's likely much better now. Deep regret... come on.

Bye Steve.

It is indeed sad news. For me, it signs the end of computer pioneering era when people were trying to convert an engineer tool (IBM in the 1970s) into a person's everyday tool.

He had chosen a different route than Bill Gates. While the latter was trying to normalize the behaviour of computers within one OS, Steve Jobs had chosen to refine a user interface over selective components. Both approaches have their merits since they cater for different people. Still, Steve Jobs was a landmark in user interface development and computer marketing.

I remember as a kid when the simplest and best user oriented available computer was Apple II (later followed by the Macintosh). As a kid I couldn't have a computer (it was too costly for my parents at that time and home computers later in the 1980s weren't distributed in France yet), so I used to go after school at the professional computer store near home and spend time on that Apple II (it was the Apple IIe with its own screen at that time). When there weren't customers, the store owner would let me manipulate the computer (and even play on the two games available: Wizardry and Daedalus). At that time, I used to write programs on paper using a Basic language lexicon.

Well Mr Jobs, I thank you for all those years.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Red.

It's sad when someone dies - but let's not forget all the unsung heroes in technology who have also had a hand in everything we use today, if not much more so. People behind Intel, ARM, Nokia, Google, Motorola, Asus, Samsung etc - could you even name any of them, let alone be aware if any of them had died? And it's even more disprespectful I feel to say that even for non-Apple products, we should be thankful to Jobs, and not those other unknown visionaries.

And let's not turn it into an excuse to push evangelism either, with this nonsense "He invented X!" Already this morning I've seen someone claim "the Internet", and I see someone on this thread claiming the smartphone(!) By all means be sad, but for people trying to tell me that my modern life and the products I use are down to him - sorry, no.

(My tech hero who died was Jay Miner - father of the Amiga, which I liked better than any Mac of the time - but I don't go claiming that Jay Miner invented the personal computer, multimedia, or anything else like that.)

There are a lot of real people behind the faceless corporations that produce the products we use every day. If you want to show respect, take a moment to learn who they are before it's too late for them too.