Boing Boing reader Joe Holmes shares this set of portraits of Occupy Wall Street participants, in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool.
Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004. He recovered, but the cancer reemerged and he received a liver transplant in 2009. His deteriorating health forced him to take a medical leave of absence from Apple in January 2011, which became permanent in August, when he officially stepped down as CEO and named longtime COO Tim Cook as his successor. Jobs chose to remain on the board as chairman.
The legacy Jobs leaves behind is immense. His storied history with Apple, its ups and downs, are by now well-known lore in the tech world: He founded the company in 1976 with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne and introduced people to the modern concept of personal computing. He was kicked out of his own company in 1984, went on to build NeXT, which he then sold to Apple. Soon after retook the role of Apple CEO in 1997, where he found the company on the verge of bankruptcy.
Jobs kept everyone on their toes: his own employees, the press and competitors. He was a famously demanding boss, with as sharp an eye for design as his ability to predict what mainstream consumers wanted from their tech products. The result was selling millions of devices and turning the company he founded into a design, technologic and business powerhouse. He leaves the company as the world’s second most-valuable publicly traded company.
After his return to Apple in 1997, he introduced the iconic iMac desktop computer, which was the beginning of the company’s dramatic rise. He then turned his attention to consumer electronics, turning upside down three different industries: music, mobile phones and portable computing. The iPod, first introduced in 2001, reimagined how people bought and listened to music, while the iPhone arrived in 2007, upending the expectations of what a mobile phone could be.
The iPad was Jobs final contribution to the tech world, which fittingly is an intersection of Apple’s strengths: using a clean, simply designed form factor that gives users access to music, videos, games, productivity tools, and the web with a simple swipe of a finger.
Here’s a great reflection on Jobs is from something Om wrote in 2005 after Jobs shocked the tech world with the decision to move Macs from Power PC to Intel chips:
Some men dream the future. He built it.
Steve Jobs, the maverick who has architected one of the greatest comebacks in the history of Silicon Valley, continues to prove that he was a modern day Howard Hughes. Unpredictable, charming, loving, petulant, and deviously mysterious. But more than anything, brilliant.
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The technology world lost one of its most influential members ever on Wednesday with the passing of Steve Jobs. His fans, customers, competitors and friends alike have been expressing their grief over his death. Here’s a collection of remembrances and quotes from peers and friends in the place he grew up and later became an icon, Silicon Valley:
Bill Gates, Microsoft founder:
I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.
Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.
The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.
For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.
Larry Page, Google CEO:
I am very, very sad to hear the news about Steve. He was a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance. He always seemed to be able to say in very few words what you actually should have been thinking before you thought it. His focus on the user experience above all else has always been an inspiration to me. He was very kind to reach out to me as I became CEO of Google and spend time offering his advice and knowledge even though he was not at all well. My thoughts and Google’s are with his family and the whole Apple family.
Steve Case, AOL co-founder:
I feel honored to have known Steve Jobs. He was the most innovative entrepreneur of our generation. His legacy will live on for the ages.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO:
Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.
Steve Jurvetson, Draper Fisher Jurvetson managing director:
Steve Jobs and my dad are my heroes.
Having worked with Jobs in the tortured NeXT days, watching his beloved Apple flounder, I’m just glad that he was able to preside over Apple’s greatest moments. At the personal and corporate levels, it is the hero’s journey archetype turned hyperbole.
Steve Jobs now rests with the sublime satisfaction of symbolic immortality.
His greatest legacy is the millions of developers and entrepreneurs he has inspired to invent on the platform he created. Although his own inventions have changed the way we all work, live, and communicate, it is how others will use and invent on top of his platform that will carry his legacy for another 100 years.
I am deeply saddened by Steve’s death. At Akamai, we grieve for his family and colleagues at Apple in their time of tremendous loss. He did so many great things for our industry, and we at Akamai benefitted directly because Steve saw the potential in us when we were just getting started in early 1999. As a result, he and his team invested in us and allowed us to work with them for more than a decade. We are all indebted to Steve for his vision and support.
Eric Schmidt, Google chairman, former Apple board member:
Today is very sad for all of us. Steve defined a generation of style and technology that’s unlikely to be matched again. Steve was so charismatically brilliant that he inspired people to do the impossible, and he will be remembered as the greatest computer innovator in history.
Randall Stephenson, CEO AT&T:
We are saddened by the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was an iconic inventor, visionary, and entrepreneur, and we had the privilege to know him as partner and friend. All of us at AT&T offer our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife, family, and his Apple family.
Steve Herrod, CTO VMWare:
What an amazing technologist, artist, and person. I am most inspired by his ability to make innovation so easily accessible, truly combining technology with the liberal arts. Rest in peace, and thank you for inspiring so many of us to ‘Stay hungry. Stay foolish.’
Julius Genachowski, Chairman of the FCC:
We have lost an American hero. Steve Jobs is irreplaceable, but he will inspire people for generations – to innovate, to tackle great challenges, to do what you love, to change the world. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones.
Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu:
Steve Jobs moved industries, companies, and most importantly, people. His thoughtful stubbornness and insanely high standards have inspired and will continue to inspire entrepreneurs, leaders, and innovators the world over.
Steve Jobs built a ton of insanely great products and two insanely great companies. He brought science fiction ideas to life. He embodied everything that makes the Valley great.
Steve personified imagination applied to technology to make it compelling and human centric. There is no substitute for vision with a passion for excellence.
If you look up ‘insanely greatest entrepreneur of all time’ in the dictionary, there should now be a picture of Steve Jobs. What he did, repeatedly, to multiple industries, and with such farsighted vision, has got to be unique in the history of business. Steve Jobs changed the world with his products and his passion, but I believe he made an even bigger impact on the world by what a role model he has been to so many, causing them to strive for their best and to think differently all across the planet. The cumulative impact of the man himself, and all those who he touched is just staggering.
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I had never heard this version until just now. It never aired.
Here’s to you, Steve. You were the crazy one.
