dagblog - Comments for "Johnny Hacktotum, 1955-2011"

Thanks Verified. Yes, Jobs

arc400 — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:22:34 +0000

In reply to It's a nice piece, arc. I had

Thanks Verified. Yes, Jobs excelled at salesmanship. I think one of the things that pushed me to write this piece was watching Ezra Klein drool over those very sales pitches (just "one more thing") in the eulogy he gave to Jobs on TRMS. The hagiography of Jobs--Jobs is John Galt kind of thing--seemed inevitable, but Klein's tribute suggested to me that individuals who might have grown up as hackers, grew up as Mac fans instead, thanks to the influence of SJ. Speaking of Maddow, she gave an interesting shout out to hackers yesterday, celebrating the fact that South Korea's president is nicknamed 'Bulldozer,' because he once took apart a bulldozer and reassembled it. (I wonder if she called in sick October 6 because she couldn't think of anything sufficiently positive to say.) I don't know if Richard Stallman is a horrible salesman, or if he didn't care enough about salesmanship to even bother hacking it.

This really is a nice

erica20 — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:45:53 +0000

In reply to Johnny Hacktotum, 1955-2011

This really is a nice piece.

When I die, the group of people who talk about me will obviously much smaller--but I hope they'll be both honest and kind, so that if I'm watching from far away I could say "Oh, isn't that nice" and also "Huh. As much as I hate to admit it, that is a good point."

It's a nice piece, arc. I had

Verified Atheist — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:42:18 +0000

In reply to Johnny Hacktotum, 1955-2011

It's a nice piece, arc. I had a similar conversation with my wife's friend's husband recently when we discussed Jobs' contributions. Overall, I think it's been positive, but not uniformly so. (I'd say the same about Gates, but don't tell my geek friends I said so!) I was unaware of what RMS had written about Jobs, but in talking about Jobs' primary contributions, I compared him to RMS. Basically, what set Jobs apart was that he was a salesman. Yes, he was a gifted hacker, but it was the salesman persona that made him so famous. I think RMS is a better hacker, but a horrible salesman. YMMV.