Opinion: The 10 Most Influential People in IT of 2011

[Guest]

Can you guess who made the list?

Opinion: The 10 Most Influential People in IT of 2011 : Read more

 

[jryan388]

I hate Zynga SOOOO MUCH

 

[julius 85]

What "new high-end computing capabilities" is Facebook creating?

 

[larap]

Good list, solid. I'd personally bump Steve Jobs up to the number one spot, though. He's definitely the highest ranking tech person on most of the most influential people of 2011 lists I've seen...

 

[ksampanna]

Whether you liked Steve Jobs or hated him, he became larger than life and his legacy will stay with Apple and us for years to come

Ok so what about Dennis Ritchie ?? Will his legacy (UNIX & C) die within a few years ??
I understand the tabloids & other media cold-shouldering Ritchie, they're ignorant anyway; but a respected tech publication as yours should atleast not follow in their footsteps ...

 

[ojas]

lol how many saw "opinion" before the title, thought "Wolfgang Gruener" and predicted that the top three in the list would be steve jobs, steve jobs and steve jobs? 😛

But he wasn't. Thankfully.

 

[BlackHawk91]

The most influential people are the ones who made more money, miss the old days when their legacy was truly influential and not just business and marketing and stocks and patents.

 

[sinfulpotato]

The most "Influential" people are simply the ones who where in the right place at the right time. The ones who make the products work and come up with the break throughs are never known.

 

[Dantte]

"Jobs’s vision for a cohesive, cross-platform computing model" LMAO, I think I threw up in my mouth a little. Name 1, just ONE, original idea from Jobs and company!

The title of this story is, "Opinion: The 10 Most Influential People in IT of 2011." Jobs didnt infulence a single person or thing, however, Jobs was heavily influenced by others when he took their ideas and brought them to reality. Example, I saw my first iPad back in the '90s on the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

 

[willard]

If this is a list specifically in 2011, why is Jobs on it at all? What did Apple pull off last year that had any significant impact on the computing landscape? A hardware refresh on the iPad and iPhone aren't exactly game changers.

For that matter, why is Steven Sinofsky on the list? Windows 8 isn't even in beta yet, so why is he considered influential LAST year?

Actually, a lot of those names don't seem to have anything particularly important in 2011. Might want to rethink the title of this article, because I really don't follow the logic. Seems that you're listing people that will be important in the coming year, not last year (but then Jobs makes even less sense...).

 

[Guest]

Again, Job's "vision". When will people stop using "vision", "visionary", "revolutionary", etc. when talking about Jobs? Jesus Christ already, I'm sick and tired of it. He made SHINY OVERPRICED GADGETS.

 

[house70]

2 genuine hacks - Zuckerberg and Jobs - made, predictably, Gruener's list.
A true inventor, like Dennis Ritchie, did not.
Move along, people, nothing new to see here.

 

[willard]

Thinking about it, I absolutely think Jobs should be replaced by Johnathan Ive. His design has been emulated (I'm not saying stolen) by countless companies with a flood of products in 2011, especially ultrabooks. If you're looking for influential in 2011 at Apple, Ive is the only one who makes sense. His designs influenced the whole industry in a highly visible way.

Honestly, I'd probably put him at the top of the list. No single person has had a greater impact on the devices we use every day than Ive and his sleek minimalist designs.

 

[bigo65]

[citation][nom]willard[/nom] No single person has had a greater impact on the devices we use every day than Ive and his sleek minimalist designs.[/citation]

Except for the fact that all of those "sleek minimalist designs" run ARM chips. Oh, and all those that emulated his design run ARM as well.

 

[balister]

Sorry, but half this list should not even get in here.

Rutan is involved in aeronautics, not IT.

Pincus is more on the consumer side of things, not really on the actual IT side of the house. Yes, Zynga is doing things with computers, but it's oriented towards individuals not organizations (which is where IT is really seen, in organziations).

Zuckerberg is sorta of eh. While the work of Facebook could be used by companies for inhouse communications, Facebook is really oriented towards non-organizations much like Zynga is.

Jobs is another eh. Apple is more of a individual oriented company, not really an organizational oriented company. Apple's targetted customer is not the enterprise, it is the individual, thus not really as IT focused as others listed (like Bevos with Amazon's cloud computing or IBM).

There are several people that should be replacing the four I just listed that are more IT focused.

 

[dormantreign]

I already hate windows 8, I just don't like the interface and will not be buying into it. I seriously doubt it will succeed "In the desktop and laptop market". Windows 7 is just settling in, its just too fast. People don't like change...like myself. Vista/Me disaster ahead for windows.

 

[cookoy]

Putting Dennis Ritchie in this list would do him great injustice as his legacy spans over 4 decades. Someone from Samsung would be ok in this list with their great product launches. And what about that ex-CEO clown from HP who single handedly almost threw away a portion of HP that took years to build.

 

[Guest]

Are you kidding? No Intel?

 

[NightLight]

Damn you Steven Sinofsky, I want my LCARS W8 touch input panels allready!!!!

 

[hoofhearted]

I would rather see Steve Balmer on than list rather than Jobs

 

[eddieroolz]

I'm rather surprised Jobs was not No.1 as usual with many rankings.

 

[Guest]

This whole title is not a good idea already! When it would be in tom's it's turn to a bad idea.
with guys who are hungry to insult people instead of having a little bit of respect for all choices they can make.

 

[bit_user]

zOMG yer gonna burn in nerd hell for not putting Jobs at #1.

;-)

 

[extremepcs]

Jobs will inevitably be on the 2012 list and beyond.

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]willard[/nom]If this is a list specifically in 2011, why is Jobs on it at all? What did Apple pull off last year that had any significant impact on the computing landscape? A hardware refresh on the iPad and iPhone aren't exactly game changers.For that matter, why is Steven Sinofsky on the list? Windows 8 isn't even in beta yet, so why is he considered influential LAST year?Actually, a lot of those names don't seem to have anything particularly important in 2011. Might want to rethink the title of this article, because I really don't follow the logic. Seems that you're listing people that will be important in the coming year, not last year (but then Jobs makes even less sense...).[/citation]

people are influenced by money. apple made an absolute crap ton. honestly, his products werent innovative, but damnit if he didnt influence nearly everyone who went into the smartphone/tablet market post apple.