Introduction

We were going to continue our series on the attachments persons have to the Mac today. But, then we read the Fortune magazine article and interview of Steve Jobs. We could not let this opportunity go by without commenting on it. So that is what we will do. But in a way it also dovetails nicely wit the article we were going to write today.

There are three elements that stand out about this Fortune piece, among others. They are the element of vindication in what Jobs says, Apple's relation to Microsoft and the maturity of Steven Jobs. We think these are important to the Mac Web Community. The Mac Web Community seems to share only one of these three elements. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Mac Web Community seems to lack the same relation to Microsoft and the maturity which Steven Jobs has. That is, perhaps the two things some Mac web sites do not share with Jobs is doing what's best for Apple, even if that means swallowing one's pride, and realizing that one's ultimate happiness and self-worth are not connected to the Mac. Read on . . .

When we read the piece, we tried to look at it through Jobs' eyes and not our own. And then, we tried to look at the Mac Web Community through those same eyes, through Jobs' eyes, the eyes we tried to ascertain to look through after reading the article. Putting ourselves in his place the best we could, we arrived at the conclusion that Jobs must look on parts of the Mac Web Community with some humor, if not with an element of the comical.

Vindication

First, the element of vindication is something we seem to share with Jobs. Recall the story. Sculley and the board get rid of Jobs. He takes key employees with him and starts NeXT. It really did not go anywhere by all accounts. It produced a lot of neat technology, but nothing marketable per se. Jobs was lost, and for the first time unsuccessful it seemed. When Sculley left and after Spindler, Amelio came on as Apple's man. He bought Next and gave Jobs some say in Apple. When Amelio left Jobs stepped back in. The rest is history as they say. Now, most of the technology from Next is being used in strategic ways by the new Apple. Jobs is asked whether this is "sweet vindication." He answers, "I suppose if you were writing a book, this would be a great plot line, because the whole thing circles back . . . It's a good ending." He adds, "Once all this plays out, I think we'll all feel vindicated--those of us from Next and everybody at Apple." Jobs, always the competitor, lived this history and the success he is having must be very sweet indeed. Living well is the best revenge.

Sculley was out of his element at Apple. Jobs mentions one of the disagreements he had with Sculley is that Sculley wanted to produce high-end, expensive enterprise machines and Jobs wanted to produce consumer machines for about $1200 not $10,000. Anyone who knows the story must know what Jobs is feeling. Imagine creating a company with your own ideas an initiative. It becomes a monster which eats you up in the end. Sure, you are to blame for some of it. The young Jobs was rude, mean and dictatorial. But, Apple was his baby after all. I might do the same things he did. There is even some of this today. An Apple tech from Cupertino told me recently "He sure knows what he wants, that's for sure." Read between the lines: He wants something and we have to get it done. But look at the results. Now he's back and doing well, with a softer edge but the same capacity for vision. It must be sweet vindication.

Vindication indeed. Vindication is not vindictiveness mind you. Vindictiveness is a bitterness which seeks revenge. But, vindication means "to reclaim a possession, proved true or correct." I do not know whether Steve Jobs is bitter. I might be if I were him. But vindication is the subtext. Jobs has reclaimed Apple as his possession. He has also proved to be right on many things. (A look at my stock portfolio is enough here.) In a sense, what Jobs did when Amelio bought Next and asked Jobs to at least be involved in Apple was to come in and taken over Apple. History has reversed itself: Apple didn't take over Next, Next has taken over Apple. Did Jobs have this in mind five years ago? Was this the plan all along? We can not know. But vindication is the subtext. Anyone who goes nuts for the home team in the big game against an arch rival knows what Jobs must feel.

We think this same type of feeling is what draws so many Mac sites to Jobs and garners his general following. He's our team, and we want him to win. When he wins so do we. We felt that an injustice had been done when Sculley did what he did (though Jobs was surely the locus of some of early Apple's problems). And now we are back in the end zone winning. Forgive some Mac sites, like this one occasionally, for the in-your-face comments about Sculley and directed to PC users. But it's our team. I think most Mac sites share this sense of vindication. I think long time Mac users do too. We hold our heads high with chests puffed out. Our team is winning again because its leader is back. Mean while, Sculley makes disparaging comments about Jobs on ZD TV.

Doing What's Best for Apple

This takes us to Microsoft and Bill Gates, the second element we saw in the Fortune piece. Read what some of the Mac sites have to say about Bill Gates and Microsoft. Read the history of the personal computer and look at the pictures of Jobs and Gates. To many Mac users, Bohemians by heart, Bill Gates is not one of them. But Jobs? I too in the seventies had personal journeys of self-discovery; I too spent much of my earlier years discussing philosophy and religion like Jobs (and now I get paid for it in teaching). I didn't go to India like him though. If there is anything that connects the many Mac sites it is a mutual distrust and I might even say hatred of Bill Gates and the feeling that Jobs is one of us. Or at least he used to be.

But, Steve Jobs looks on this with humor we are sure. Recall, it was Gates that bought the $150 million in shares to help jump start Apple in 1997. We hated it. We booed and hissed. It was the devil himself. We think using Microsoft software is a profanation of our pure Macs. We just don't get Dell and AOL and Windows. Wintels are second-rate we say. I can not even mention what some sites write. We have on this site made strong comments. But not Jobs. He says he just had dinner with Gates in his home. They were joking about being the gray haired ones now not the young Turks anymore. Sounds as though they are friends, uh? On good terms even. Yet in the same breath Jobs says that Microsoft is copying QuickTime and iMovie. Again reading between the lines, we sense some ambivalence in what Jobs says. He says people like Microsoft are copying Apple but " . . . I don't mind. I don't mind," says Jobs. Is he trying to talk himself not minding? We don't know. At least they are on speaking terms.

How many Mac webmasters and editors would go to Gates home for dinner and jokes? Okay, a few would love to see the house. But, some would end up lecturing Gates on aesthetics and fairness, if not anti-trust laws. We don't trust him, and we surely do not trust or like Ballmer. I have a hard time even thinking ethically about them (my own ethics that is, which my character intact). We think their stuff is second best. We think they ripped us off (and they did). They are just geeks. And this is to put it mildly.

We think the animosity which so many Mac sites show Gates and his company is not shared by Jobs. After all, they are two guys that did it. There must be a fraternal feeling among them. It might be awkward and stressed but there nonetheless. Apple does depend on Microsoft right now anyway, though not totally. Jobs wants what's best for Apple. And part at least of what is best is not losing Microsoft support, at least right now. So there seems to be a kind of symbiotic relationship involving friendship yet ambivalence.

I share the same ambivalence we see in Jobs' interview. This article is being written in Word 98 part of the Office 98 package. It is a fine program, sometimes. (We are waiting eagerly for AppleWorks 6 and will see how far we can migrate over though.) PowerPoint is used in the philosophy department I teach for in classes (I do not use it though). It is not bad. My wife uses Excel quite a bit. We do avoid Explorer though but we will accord version 5 a fair hearing. Yet, we don't like them, not the programs, but Gates and Ballmer and Michael Dell. Jobs on the other hand has the maturity which many of us lacks: To look at what is best for Apple even if that means working with the likes of Gates. Perhaps he thinks some web sites do not have Apple's best in mind; in fact he may believe that they actually hurt Apple (think of the rumor sites, sites we know for a fact that Jobs dislikes). It is like having to work two jobs, he might tell us, and hating one of them. We do it for our families nonetheless. We do what's best for the family and swallow our pride. Maybe many Mac sites, including this one, need to have the same view: Look to what is best for Apple even if that means changing our approaches to Mac commentary. It is obvious why he does this: He loves Apple Computer, his baby, because love always requires doing what's best for the beloved even if that means we go with less. Maybe the rhetoric, focus and goals of some Mac sites would change.

Growing Up

Finally, Jobs shows much maturity. The Woz was asked about Jobs at the last Expo. We do not have the exact quotation, but it was to the effect, "I think Steve has learned a lot about life in the last few years." Read between the lines: Steven Jobs has grown up. He has a peace about himself, a calmness and coolness even. He said he's made his fortune in the interview. So it is not the money, or the jets or the stock options anymore. He talks about the new dot com millionaires losing "rewarding experiences in their unfolding lives," and wonders if they are just interested in the money instead of building a company. Jobs says the really rewarding thing is not making a company but helping it grow. "It's like when you're a parent," he says. See the maturity here? Woz is right, he has learned a lot. Middle age and kinds do that for a person.

This maturity comes out in the last line of the article in which Jobs is described as taking a walk with his wife and telling her that he plans to stay with Apple for "at least four or five years." This is the language of a person who knows who he is, someone centered as it were, with ego intact. He has done it all. What else is left to prove? There are still pessimists out there who are waiting for a slip, perhaps Sculley among them. But, Jobs doesn't act as if he needs Apple. That does not mean he does not love it, or that is will not stay longer. It simply means that he can be happy and fulfilled without it.

Epicurus, the Hellenistic philosopher, said that we can possess material things as long as we realize they are only "unnecessary and natural." This means that they may bring us comfort, but ultimately our happiness does not depend on them. We may experience happiness with wealth, but our human nature doesn't need it for flourishing. In fact, such luxuries often cause more harm to our character than good, he says. But Jobs an Epicurean? Even Buddhists (like Jobs?), hold loosely to material things, even companies, since they are after all ultimately unreal and unnecessary for happiness according to Buddhism. It does place our attachments to the world in perspective though, and the larger context of Apple advocacy generally comes into focus.

The maturity which Mac sites lack is seen in these points. It seems, in reading them, that many people's happiness depends on Apple and the Mac. Much of this may be rhetorical designed to get hits. Some is good hearted joking. But if Apple was gone tomorrow, many would, in a word, lose the reason for living, it seems. (Many might lose their jobs though!) But, Steven Jobs seems to understand that his meaning and worth are not tied to such things. Not anymore anyway. Maybe even Jobs thinks we take things a little too seriously. It seems that he could walk away from Apple at any time and have Tevanian step in. One really never knows though. So we think that Jobs must look on some of the Mac Web Community with a comical sense. He does what's best for Apple even if that means acquiescing to Gates; not all Mac sites seem to have Apple's best in mind he might think. He has a maturity and independence which shows that his attachments to the world and Apple are in perspective; and he must wonder if some Mac sites have the same balance, whispering to himself, "get it in perspective." Maybe he thinks one can advocate the Mac too much and in the wrong way. We just don't know. Yet when Jobs reads some Mac sites he must laugh at us sometimes. Think about it . . .

David Schultz