They were wary friends who became bitter rivals. But in private, Steve jobs felt little but contempt for Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, calling him "unimaginative", a grievous insult in Silicon Valley, according to a new biography of the Apple creator.The 630-page book by Walter Isaacson is filled with barbs aimed at Jobs peers, who he felt were all beneath him. Jobs reserved special scorn for Gates, the mild-mannered billionaire who helped to bail him out when Apple was in trouble during the late 1990s. Isaacson, who enjoyed unprecedented access to Jobs in the two years before his death, suggests Jobs was annoyed that Gates had "opted out" of the computer race to establish a philanthropic foundation while he kept seeking to surpass his own technological triumphs. Jobs was wary of philanthropy, dismissing those who gave away their fortune as seeking "false respectability."He was also contemptuous of Microsoft Windows, the computer operating system which he said stole early Apple ideas and then "screwed them up." Neither Gates nor Jobs would allow each others product into their homes. Jobs told Isaacson, who interviewed him 40 times, "Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented anything, which is why I think he is more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology."Isaacson, a former managing editor of Time magazine, said Jobs chose him to write his biography so he could "explain himself to his children."The book, Steve Jobs: A Biography shows two sides of the Arab-American technocrat: his bold inventiveness which changed the music, film and publishing industries and the petty tyrant who sacked people for crossing his path when he was in a bad mood.Given up for adoption, Jobs never knew he had a sisterthe novelist Mona Simpsonuntil he tracked down his biological mother. She had been forced to give him up by her family because they disapproved of his immigrant father. Simpson told Jobs that his father was a Syrian called Abdul Fattah Jandali, who never knew his son was remaking the world.They may have met unknowingly, Isaacson revealed. Jandali told Simpson that he had run a popular Mediterranean restaurant in Silicon Valley. "Everyone used to come there," he told Simpson. "Even Steve Jobs used to eat there, yeah, he was a great tipper."Simpson did not tell Jandali who the big tipper really was. "I was looking for my biological mother," said Jobs. "Obviously, you know, I was looking for my biological father at the same time. And I learnt a little bit about him and I didnt like what I learnt."I asked her not to tell him that we ever met, not tell him anything about me." Jobs never got in touch with his father, now 80 and vice-president of a Nevada casino.Culled from The Sunday Times
Click here to read full news..
