Steve Jobs: Not a very nice person to know
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I think some of your stories are not very accurate, they are twisted to be more negative than they were.
In any case, one thing you should definitely do is remove Richard Stallman's statement -- since perhaps you don't know him -- he thinks the whole IT product industry is satanish -- nobody should ever sell any product as per him. He does not use any software which is sold and lives like a hermit in the world of tech, with so fanatic ideals that he is completely incompatible with today's world.
Secondly, labor conditions at FoxConn factories are often pointed out as Apple's crimes -- but it is foolish to do so. Foxconn is the largest electronics manufacturer in the world, and a LOT of top tech brands in the world outsource their manufacturing to them. Apple makes them most money though -- I am not sure how Foxconn conditions are caused by Apple.
Thirdly, about charity, he donated privately. And he had a RED product campaign for iPods which donated a large amount of money to Africa for AIDS. And he has left his wealth of 7 billion here, his wife spent a lot of time doing charity, I am sure she will use almost all of it in charity...
Fourthly, backdating options was a common practice followed at a lot of companies -- this has nothing to do with Steve Jobs -- in fact he was found to be innocent in this (he knew about it, but he likely thought of it as an accounting issue: he was no accounting expert -- its not like he requested for this to be done).
Regarding Amelio -- really? Can you point to any authentic source for reference? I am not sure he made Apple a 3 billion stock pile when Apple had a multi-billion dollar loss the year before Steve Jobs joined. And you are trying to make it sound like Steve Jobs was a hitler who kicked off Amelio who should have been the CEO of Apple. Are you nuts?
One more -- you mention Apple "stole" the developers from C&G, a MP3 software firm. Please can you describe more what you meant -- I never knew one could "steal" developers.... Apple had hired 4 of their key employees --- by making them an offer which they could have declined obviously but they didn't, because they wanted to join Apple -- i am not sure how this means anything. Lot of things like this happen in the industry, for example, Juniper frequently hires a bunch of developers from Cisco's team for a product, when they want to start a new similar product.
Overall - I obviously agree Steve was not a "polite" person -- he used to talk harshly and make aggressive moves business wise. But he did all of it for passion of making something that will change the market upside down. And he did that, multiple times. With innovative ideas. Who could have started a retail store chain in 2001 for an electronics company? And made it successful today when all retail is failing...
All his achievements are known to everybody. He was a person that had failings like everybody else, but he pursued his passion with such a vigor, that he made a massive impact on everything he did. He moved industries forward, with a sudden, immense push, multiple times.
Nike was very heavily criticized for the working/living conditions of workers at the factories that made Nike shoes.
For quite sometime, Nike hid behind the claim that they were not shoe manufacturers, but a sports product design and marketing company, and that the actual conditions of the workers were not Nike's business.
What you are telling me "Apple makes them most money though " is that Apple has a great deal of leverage with FoxConn, and that Apple can use that leverage as Nike did to dramatically improve and police the conditions of the FoxConn employees.
And if Steve Jobs had, or Tim Cook would, tell their users that in the future prices would take a $10 jump per player to ensure they were manufactured in better conditions, my guess is that it would affect sales in much the same way that Nike's sales were affected (which is to say, increase.)
What I wanted to say is that Foxconn makes products for a large number of companies : Acer, Amazon, Intel, Cisco, HP, Dell, Nintendo, Nokia, Microsoft, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Vizio, and others, apart from Apple. I am sure their products are also manufactured in the same labor conditions. Why is Apple being blamed and not any of the other companies? In fact, since Apple's name has been publicized, they have done much more to improve the conditions there, I am not sure whether these other clients did even a little bit.
That you are not aware of criticism of other companies does not mean it does not exist. Just as Nike took point with criticism of its sweatshops but many companies also suffered that criticism.
But Apple from it's 1984 commercial, it's commercial celebrating Gandhi, all of its associations with musicians, the entire Apple brand stands for a humanism that is belied in its production methods.
They can do more.
Not only do they then deserve the criticism, they are precisely the most effective company to pressure due to their leverage with FoxConn giving them power, and their overall brand message giving critics power over Apple.
Heck, in a way I'm sure it was great working with him - I bet you always knew where you stood.
People who are honest and disregard the consequences of absolute honesty are an asset in a world filled with people who would lie to keep social ties intact. Assholes on the other hand, not so much.
No clue about Steve as I never met the dude. But you're implying that just because he is able to turn a hefty profit and that people liked him means is proof he wasn't an asshole.
What bothers me slightly is that much of the praise for Jobs seems to equate one with the other. Let's celebrate the man as a visionary entrepreneur, and leave the rest to those that actually knew him.
Under his shoe.
@asto, I think you should have remarked on this in the title to this link. And I wish people would not post links with auto-playing audio or video.