Biggest regret of '07 (and perhaps the last year, in terms of conferences)? Not having attended D. This historical appearance is one of the (highly justifiable) reasons why: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on stage together again, for the first time in ten years.
Alas, we can at least experience it virtually. Microchunked into seven or so parts, this particular segment highlights Bill and Steve looking back at '97. Mr. Jobs (on his, and Apple's, comeback):
You know, Apple was in very serious trouble. What was really clear was that, if the game was a zero sum game where for Apple to win, Microsoft had to lose -- then Apple was going to lose.
And, it was clear that you didn't have to play that game. Because Apple wasn't going to beat Microsoft. Apple didn't have to beat Microsoft. Apple had to remember who Apple was! Because it had forgotten who Apple was. So, to me it was pretty essential to break that paradigm.
It was also important that Microsoft was the biggest software developer, outside of Apple, developing for the Mac! So, it was just crazy what was happening at that time. And, Apple was very weak. So I called Bill up, and we tried to patch things up.
