Reality distortion field

by Volker Weber

Steve Jobs at D5: Bill built the first software company, in the industry. And, I think he built the first software company before anybody really in our industry knew what a software company was, except for these guys. And that was huge. That was really huge.

Quick reality check: Microsoft was founded in 1975. SAP was founded in 1972.

Comments

Perhaps he implied shrink-wrapped / retail software business.

Thomas Gumz, 2007-06-01

SPSS was founded in 1968.

Richard Schwartz, 2007-06-01

For Americans the world simply consists only of the U.S.A., e.g. in sports the World Series, the championship series of Major League Baseball, Golf, ... [without further comment]

Cem Basman, 2007-06-02

So what is the future?

Rich Browser Experience vs Full OS Application?

Bill and Steve got married :-)

Google Gear seems to be the next big step -
It keeps data persistent.

Maybe code soon?

pierre
http://kerchner.de/blog

pierre kerchner, 2007-06-02

Cem, SPSS is located in Chicago, IL. Assuming they haven't relocated substantially since their foundation, SPSS was a U.S. software company before Microsoft. I'd rather say Steve Jobs needed something positive to say about Bill Gates' professional life as well. Something that most people would initially nod to without thinking about it too much...

Ragnar Schierholz, 2007-06-02

P.S.: If you read the history page on SPSS.com you'll see that actually the SPSS system (as many software systems of the time) is a spin off from an academic institution (in this case Stanford University). But to be exact, Richard, "the IRS determined in 1971 that SPSS was a small software company, which threatened the non-profit status of the University of Chicago within which SPSS had been housed". So obviously, until 1971 SPSS was published, distributed and maintained for non-profit by a university group. Only due to increased turn-over the IRS said that it would no longer consider it a non-profit organization. In this ligth, this wouldn't exactly be a previous instance of what Steve Jobs lauded Bill Gates for. The folks at SPSS didn't found a company because they figured this would be a viable business model, but they founded the company because the IRS told them there was a business.

No, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say this is nothing being lauded for. Possibly that's even more something to be lauded for. But it's not what Mr. Jobs was talking about, imho.

Ragnar Schierholz, 2007-06-02

I recommend the reading of Terry Pratchett's "The Science of Discworld III - Darwins Watch" in which there is a inquiry about the statement that James Watt has invented the steam engine. (There were indeed many many precedents from the antique times on) (And also an inquiry of how great was the role of Darwin in changing the world)

Gregory Engels, 2007-06-02

Ragnar, I see your point and I was not trying to say that SPSS was truly comparable to Microsoft. It just happens to be the one company that I could think of right away that was around before Microsoft. I could think of them easily because I was a user of their software around 1979. Yes, they started as an academic spin-off, but even if you only accept the 1971 date it is still several years older than Microsoft and it does still exist today, which is quite an accomplishment. (BTW: I was an SPSS user briefly, in 1979/1980.)

And now that I've had a chance to dig up some facts, here are two more software companies founded in 1968, and another that was founded in 1959 according to this source. That page also lists ADP, founded in 1949, and CSC, founded in 1959; and they still exist today, though I believe that both have been services companies rather than software companies for most of their respective histories.

The point is, perhaps Jobs was referring to personal computing when he said "our industry", but IT didn't start with personal computing and there was a software industry well before there was a Microsoft. Of course it was a much smaller industry, and as a whole it completely missed the opportunity to get into personal computing, leaving the door wide open for Microsoft.

Richard Schwartz, 2007-06-02

And, Volker, as a Darmstadt resident you shouldn't forget Software AG (Wikipedia entry for Software AG), which was founded in 1969. They named the whole industry after them :)

Andreas Schödl, 2007-06-02

Nicht zu vergessen Cincom Systems von 1968 mit Software für IBM-Rechner. Mit dem dienstältesten CEO der IT-Branche, Tom Nies. Grandioser Typ! Hat mal in einem Interview SAP und Oracle als "fette Elefanten" bezeichnet, die es abzuschießen gilt. Und das Zitat auch noch freigegeben. Ein Highlight.

Alexander Freimark, 2007-06-04

Ummm. We're shocked that Jobs was more interested in making a bold statement than the truth?

(shakes head and moves on)

Craig Wiseman, 2007-06-05

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