palmit.commentary: My Panther Can Take Your Longhorn!

« Axentra Server | Main | DARPA - Grand Challenge »

October 30, 2003

My Panther Can Take Your Longhorn!

Apple's Panther
I read a book last year titled The Second Coming of Steve Jobs by Alan Deutschman and I put it down laughing at the antics of millionaires, like Steve Jobs; and billionaires like Lary Ellison of Oracle and Bill Gates of Microsoft.

The book talks a lot about the childish antics of Bill and Steve. One part that I probably will never forget, describes a crank call Bill placed to Steve one evening. Bill was pretending to be Philippe Kahn, a Frenchman and a big player in the days after the big bang in Silicon Valley.

"Zeez eeez Feee-LEEEP Kahn! He apparently exclaimed, "Zeee Macintosh sucks!" hanging up and laughing hysterically. Bill was trying to impress a girl.

Bill was jealous of Steve's celebrity and "visionary" label and Steve was jealous of Bill's unparalleled success and wealth. They were then and they are now.

I started to wonder today if Bill and Steve are back at it, one trying to pull the spotlight away from the other. Steve launched Apple's (his) new operating system dubbed Panther last Friday. Bill, in turn, launched the PDC conference on Monday touting the supposed excellence and genius of his new operating system dubbed Longhorn. Did Bill need to put on the show this week? Or, was Bill fighting to pull the spotlight back in his direction?

My Panther can kill your Longhorn. They think like that when they're coming up with the names for their operating systems, really they do. On the same note, Microsoft (Bill) fired an employee for posting a picture of a pallet of Apple G5s arriving at the Microsoft receiving center in Redmond. That's embarrassing.

Posted by Cale on Oct 30, 2003