Bill Gates discusses the last time he met with Steve Jobs

[Shawn Knight]

Bill Gates sat down with 60 Minutes’ Charlie Rose last night for a one-on-one interview that has many in the tech industry talking today. That’s because the co-founder of Microsoft spoke candidly about longtime rival Steve Jobs and outlined much of what the two spoke about during their final meeting just before Jobs passed away in late 2011.

Gates said he got to visit with Jobs just a few months before he died in October 2011. The two talked about what they’d learned, about families – everything, Gates said. Jobs wasn’t melancholy about the whole situation, though. Instead, it was all very forward-looking, at one point telling Gates that they hadn’t really improved education with technology.

During another part of the interview, Gates said Jobs showed him the boat he was working on and said he looked forward to being on it even though they both knew there was a pretty good chance that wouldn’t happen. Gates said that thinking about your potential mortality isn’t very productive.

When pressed on the issue, Gates admitted that Apple did a better job on certain products – the tablet, for example. He said Microsoft did lots of tablets well before Apple did but they put the pieces together in a way that succeeded. Gates said he wished he had Jobs’ sense of design. With as little engineering background as he had, it shows that design can lead in a good direction and that some phenomenal products can come out of it.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/52567-bill-gates-discusses-the-last-time-he-met-with-steve-jobs.html

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

I saw that story on 60 minutes.... what I got out of it was more of a comparison to Google than Jobs. Google spends tons of time and money making things '10 times better' (like searching and Gmail) in their words, and their latest product is Glass.

Bill Gates has devoted himself to completely eradicating diseases in 3rd world countries. He hasn't made any cool glasses, but one of his Foundation's inventions is a cooler that can keep vaccines cold for 50 days on one batch of ice with no battery! They're working on a laser that can blast mosquitoes in mid-flight! They invented a toilet that is sanitary and doesn't need plumbing!

The guy is using his money and brains to save kids' lives by the hundreds of thousands.... but hey, Steve made a cool tablet and phone and Google has these glasses that show you the weather.

It's really hard to talk about Bill Gates next to any other tech mogul and leave out his far more important contributions to humanity... Gates time at MS was just a stepping stone to his important job.

 

[SalaSSin]

It's really hard to talk about Bill Gates next to any other tech mogul and leave out his far more important contributions to humanity... Gates time at MS was just a stepping stone to his important job.

I sincerely hope you're right! Gates was, as far as I've read about it, a harsh businessman, but it would appear he's become a great human.

 

[shubham somani]

I like your post and bill gates and Steve Jobs are the inspirations for me. I like their quotes.

 

[Zilpha]

It is interesting that everyone has forgotten that Windows did a tablet well before the iPad came into existence. The OS was called Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and we deployed it on thousands of tablet PCs back in 03'. It was used mostly by pharma reps who needed to get signatures in doctors' offices.

I like Steve Jobs as a person and I was very sorry to see him leave us, but he wasn't this great innovator. He was just skilled at convincing you of what products he thought you needed. Apple isn't going to have the same staying power with him gone.

And Bill Gates is a great guy. Not many use their money for the greater good.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Good stuff.

 

[Guest]

MilwaukeeMike said:
I saw that story on 60 minutes.... what I got out of it was more of a comparison to Google than Jobs. Google spends tons of time and money making things '10 times better' (like searching and Gmail) in their words, and their latest product is Glass.
Bill Gates has devoted himself to completely eradicating diseases in 3rd world countries. He hasn't made any cool glasses, but one of his Foundation's inventions is a cooler that can keep vaccines cold for 50 days on one batch of ice with no battery! They're working on a laser that can blast mosquitoes in mid-flight! They invented a toilet that is sanitary and doesn't need plumbing!
The guy is using his money and brains to save kids' lives by the hundreds of thousands.... but hey, Steve made a cool tablet and phone and Google has these glasses that show you the
weather.

It's really hard to talk about Bill Gates next to any other tech mogul and leave out his far more important contributions to humanity... Gates time at MS was just a stepping stone to his important job.

Extremely well said...

 

[hahahanoobs]

Gates is the best. Period. All I wanna do now is watch his interviews again.

 

[DanUK]

Big +1 for MilwaukeeMike's post