|
Wednesday, August 21, 2002 A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away (ok, Menlo Park), a little company of former Apple people got together and created a new unix-like operating system. They did what linux hasn't done in less time, with less resources, and with less imperfections. BeOS was what linux and MacOS X often wish they could be. But a great product doesn't always mean you're going to take over the world- people have conquered the world with mediocre products, after all. In the end BeOS faded away and was aquired by Palm. Sad, but true. There are still many die-hard BeOS fans out there, and there are still many aspects of the OS that are far ahead of their time. Also ahead of his time was Be's flamboyant CEO, Jean-Louis Gassée, formerly of Apple (ironically, at Apple he was known for being against cloning the Mac, at one point Be's business was selling their OS for Mac clones). Gassée is an interesting guy. [Click Here] to see some random quotes from him, two samples of which are below.
"We should be thankful for a few reminders from Microsoft. Don't play where they master both sides of an interface or a transaction. Initial success, or failure, doesn't mean much; relentless pursuit and execution of an idea does."
- Be Newsletter, Issue 50
"The romance of Silicon Valley was about money - excuse me, about changing the world, one million dollars at a time."
- Wired Magazine, Issue 4.05
As a side note, for a while I had some Gassée quotes in my random email signatures. A headhunter came down on me for it, saying that prospective employers might find it very offensive.
Tell someone that gives a fuck
If they can't handle it, I wouldn't like working there anyway, would I? And Mr. Headhunter wouldn't see me hang around long enough to get his fee.
[ 8/21/2002 04:52:00 PM ] [
0 comments
]
|
