Steve Jobs on Microsoft

JoshuaG
3 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2008–2022
YouTube
3.1M views · 20 years ago · interview · historical

A short clip from a 1996 interview with Steve Jobs, made before his return to Apple, in which he says Microsoft has no taste. He says the company brings little original thinking or culture to its products.

HN people reach for it whenever taste and vision in products come up, as Jobs's own statement of what he thought Microsoft lacked.

“This summarize it very well, lack of taste and lack of vision, it's that simple”
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7 comments from Hacker News

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@Shadonototra2022 · in “Ask HN: Why no company is able to deliver Apple M1/M2 performance per watt”
Because they lack taste for quality and efficiency, they don't want to invest in R&D and they don't know how to retain talents So you get companies that stagnate and higher ups are too focused on building a huge wealth and work hard to secure a golden parachute, maintaining their position and salary is higher priority ▶ this video This summarize it very well, lack of taste and lack of vision, it's that simple and has huge impact on the products you release as a result Pigeons too busy eating random shit in this particular parking lot, they don't know any better This also shows why link Pure lack of taste It translates to: "They are stupid for trying to do better, you should hate them too"
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@kemayo2011 · in “Steve Jobs has died”
One thing that he really forced down all our throats was the importance of taste. He knew what he wanted, and he made us all see how great it was. Here's a clip from back in 1996, before his return to Apple, where he talks briefly about Microsoft, and in it you can really see his continuing obsession with making insanely great things: ▶ this video
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@edw5192008 · in “Steve Jobs on Microsoft: No Taste (00:54 video)”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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@DeepDuh2012 · in “Elon Musk: "I would like to die on Mars"”
It was 1996 (▶ this video). No, Jobs was certainly never as humble as Musk and I never said that, they definitely have different characters. My point was that we still have to wait on Musk, this man and his companies are far away from their goals and it remains to be seen whether they can afford to keep being idealistic. And don't get me wrong, I'm a space freak, I root for that guy as much as anyone.
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@gvb2010 · in “John Sculley: The Secrets of Steve Jobs’ Success”
link The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products. * Triumph of the Nerds (1996) I didn't verify this link, but google says the interview where Jobs says Microsoft has no taste can be seen here: ▶ this video
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@req22009 · in “You can go to the bathroom whenever you want at Microsoft”
Steve Jobs might propose it is because they have no taste: ▶ this video
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@ashot2009 · in “ Microsoft Silverlight vs Google Wave: Why Karma Matters ”
I'm surprised you didn't make the larger point: this is true for every product Microsoft has ever made. Copy, improve, persist. Basic, DOS, Windows, Office, IE, etc. They are not a creative company (or as Jobs would have it they have no taste - ▶ this video ). Their business does not revolve around creating new things but about copying and improving things that already exist in the market. And to be fair, this strategy has worked out quite well for them so far, so why would they change course?
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