4. Committment to the end user experience above the quick and easy profit. The software is engineered to work reliably and intuitively. Apple was among the first to adopt standards of interface design because protecting the user’s time and creations was given a high value. This was rarely my experience with MS, where the user experience almost always seemed subordinate to extraneous corporate and industry-centric values.

MS, in it’s day to day operations and policies were far from what anyone would ever consider charitable. They were brutal abusive monopolists in practice, wrenching as much power and control as they could (illegally, it was proven) and employing what no one would describe as ethical practices. So, from the angle of world outlook and philosophy, it appears that Bill’s corporate policies and charitable endeavors never intersected. Isn’t that odd? Steal, scratch and bite every last penny while making the customer suffer? Then turn around and act like Mother Teresa? That seems very strange to me. I don’t want to knock his foundation, which is doing good, but this is about Bill’s legacy, in large part. His only corporate goal was to win by any means necessary, and now that his company has no where to grow, he’s leaving the sinking ship and patching his damaged image. I think there is some truth to that.

Now… look at Steve Jobs and Apple. This is a vastly different dynamic philosophically. Is there the same division between corporate success and social responsibility at Apple as there was with MS? I don’t see it. Here are some concrete examples:

1. Apple used it’s considerably valuable website home page to:
– Acknowledge the contributions of important civil rights leaders
– Acknowledge the contributions of accomplished musicians, scientists,
women, etc
– Raise money for the victims of the tsunami and hurricane Katrina

it is worth noting that this was not a common practice at the time they
began doing this, and this leadership position has since had an influence
on other corporatations. Who gets the attention for this philanthropic
gesture? How can we measure the social and cultural value of this action?

2. Apple’s products have historically served to empower average people to
express themselves creatively and contribute positively to the world. Today,
Apple’s products are serving to help break down the lock that
concentrated wealth and power has over the mainstream media and re-introduce
democracy and dialogue into the social discourse by leveling the playing field in
the news, information, music, entertainment, etc. What is the value of this
contribution? Does it not have a social significance that we are not giving
proper credit to? Would the same kind of cultural landscape be possible if
Apple had gone under and MicroSoft was left as the only significant force in
computing?

3. Recently, Apple has allied with [Product] Red to fight AIDS in Africa. Yes, it will
sell a lot of iPods, but it also gives incredible visibility to a problem that most
Americans don’t seem to care about. What is the value of this action?

There may be more examples of this melding of business objectives and liberal democratic values in the case of Apple, but these are the ones that stand out to me. Who is to say what Steve will do with his wealth after his corporate leadership days are over? In the meantime, he is doing something with his power and influence now through integrating the 2. Steve’s world is not fragmented like Bill’s is. The fact that this sensibility is also present in the integration of the products he helps to develop speaks volumes of the breadth of this approach to life.

Paul G

The creators of the Mac went on to other pursuits (NeXT, General Magic, Nautilus) and some ended up back at Apple after a while (Bud Tribble went to NeXT then came back to Apple during the reverse takeover).

John Lassiter and Ed Catmull are still at Pixar, creating great movies and advancing the state of the art in computer animation.

In some respects it is fitting that Gates’ ill-gotten billions from his crappy OS and applications, be squandered on African projects that will accomplish nothing.

If you really want to change Africa, hire the French Foreign Legion, take over some god-forsaken jungle in Africa, then offer strong property rights and relatively corruption-free government, along with a decent police force. Build a massive wall around the area first, because colony or no, people from all over the continent will be trying to get in. That will soak up the first $10 Billion right there and actually give you the chance to seriously improve the life of some 50,000 to 100,000 people right there.

Microsoft does the same thing, but I’m not a PC guy so I can’t think of any specific examples.

Quite a few Apple alumni went on to create the next great new thing, whatever they thought that might be. In the mid ’90s it was PDAs, so Apple alums Bill Atkinson and Andy Hertzfeld created General Magic, Steve Capps created the Newton, and other Apple refugees created the Palm Pilot.

Actually, you only uncovered approximately 10% of Jobs’ campaign contributions to Democrats.

Basically of the Pixar crowd, Jobs is the only one that’s anywhere near Gates/Buffet.