I would have liked to see some more recent quotes from both of them. And they definitely paint Jobs as quite a jerk; I'm not thoroughly convinced yet, but I have my suspicions that he may very well be..
Meh - I believe the reality is they've *both* copied each other over the years. Willingly or not; some ideas/features are good enough that they end up being deemed necessary in the eyes of the end users. At that point, you're forced to deliver or lose sales/share.
Regarding the banter itself: I would opine that Jobs has little to lose - and potentially a lot to gain in the eyes of his supporters and fence-sitters - by freely taking shots at Microsoft.
Bill Gates isn't quite as free to express an aggressive opinion in that area, as his comments (right or wrong) would inevitably be portrayed in the worst possible light. About the furthest he could go is to damn with faint praise.
Bill Gates has always been a gentleman. I've never liked Microsoft, or their products too much, but it's REALLY hard to dislike Bill Gates as a man.
Steve Jobs? Kind of easy. Always has been. If he thinks Apple makes first rate products, he needs a better view through the looking glass. They make expensive garbage. Always have.
Well, gates has the look of the peaceful geek with good manors and who sits in his place, on the other side is jobs who looks more like the bully and the guy who can`t hear anybody over the sound of how awesome he is.
I don't blame them for banning the iPod, those headphones get dangerously loud, to the point of damaging people's hearing. The iPhone is just a phone using apples OS, what's the harm in it? I wouldn't be surprised about the Playstation being on that list though. Mrs. Gates seems like the kind of woman that would want to protect her children from violence and such. I find that to be an admirable trait by the way. I'm not trying to insult her in any way.
Jobs is just giving honest criticism. It's true. It's sad seeing some of you crying about this. Gates doesn't need to bitch about Apple because there's enough of it on sites like this.
Put yourself in Steve's shoes. Here's a guy who always takes ideas from what you make, and turn it into something more successfull and become richer than you. Wouldn't despise that guy? Ofcourse you will. But that's just how the game is played. Everyone takes ideas from one another. So Steve should not hate. Bill overall is a nice guy. You've got to admire his philanthropy hobby. He's doing a lot of good to poor people in the world. Is Jobs doing any philanthropy? If he does I haven't heard about it.
Just goes to prove that Steve Jobs is a stain in the industry.
Jobs' quotes are a huge waste of breath that does nothing to help anyone, except fill Jobs' pockets with cash from brain dead consumers (for the most part). This is the same reason I HATE HATE HATE any kind of fanboy, regardless of the product or service they stand behind. No one gives a f**k what you think is better, except weak minded people you are able to convert. It seems the word competition seems to be used intermittently among these same people... when it doesn't interfere with their fanboyism of course.
Throwing my captions in the ring.
1) Steve: I have this much money. Bill: Well I have this much.
2) Steve: The iPad has a touchscreen this big. Bill: It's a big iPod rofl. *slaps knee*
3) Bill: Catch this ball. Steve: Right through my hands...