Steve Jobs has been much eulogised in the last week since his death, but few people truly recognise the profound effects he had on the way we live our lives today.
Steve Jobs, along with his partner in crime Steve Wozniak, undoubtably helped kick start the computer revolution, in fact, along with IBM stand as the sole survivors of this hodgepodge revolution of computing. In 1976 the Apple I provided a computer that you would recognise as such today, available both as a kit and fully assembled, the computer had a keyboard input, video output and a storage interface card was also avaliable allowing you to save your data onto tape. Later, a completely assembled successor, the Apple II series, brought computing to the masses throughout the United States.
In 1984 Steve and the team at Apple went on to create the Macintosh, the computer which brought the graphical user interface and mouse to the forefront and without which the interfaces we are all so familiar with may never have become mainstream and turned the already recognisable hardware into a computer system not that distant from what you might buy to this day.
Shortly after the release of the Macintosh, Steve Jobs was unceremoniously ousted from the company he created by the very CEO he convinced to join the firm. But this was not the end of Steve's incredible contributions to technology. With time to spare and a new outlook on life Steve founded NeXT computer in 1985, an innovative company providing high specification workstation class machines to institutions like CERN. It was the NeXT cube that was to become the platform for the very first world wide web server, sat on the desk on none other than Tim Berners-Lee. The web radically changed the way we use the Internet, transforming it from a collection of numerous services into the now unified web that we have come to know to the point that the Internet itself is now a synonym for web.
Not content to reinvent just the technology sector, Steve turned his sights to media. Purchasing a division of Lucasfilm Steve created the now familiar company Pixar which has pushed the boundaries of computer generated imagery with every release, from the humble beginnings of the ageing Toy Story to new releases such as Up, Steve pushed boundaries. The enormous success of these movies resulted in Disney's decision to purchase Pixar in 2006, leaving Steve the largest single shareholder of the Disney company, where he retained his position on the board until his death.
In 1996 Apple was looking for a new operating system for it's now ageing Mac OS and after extensive search decided to buy their own founders new firm, NeXT and became the basis for Mac OS X. Steve was elevated to the position of interim CEO in 1997 and finally officially retook the reigns in 2000 where he reinvigorated the company he had founded with iconic products such as the iMac, available in a range of then outrageous colours, and later the now ubiquitous iPod and iPhone and most recently reinvented the tablet market with the iPad.
The loss of Steve Jobs is not only brings sadness to his family, the people he worked with and the people who were touched by his creations, but to the whole world. The loss of such a innovative and driving force who in many ways sculpted the way we both work and play is truly saddening and such a man will not easily be replaced.
Cross-posted from cs08jjj on social media
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