LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew

Posted Sep 5, 2010 22:55 UTC (Sun) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link]

That's a tough call. The ipod was far from the first such device to market. At best, you could say Jobs popularized the product for the mass market (largely due to good UI design and superior marketing).

Ah, but that's exactly the point I'm trying to make. I'm distinguishing between invention and influence. Whoever made the first stored music player, or the first ten, didn't have much influence. People kept listening to tapes and CDs. Good UI design and superior marketing, if Jobs effected those, make him influential. But even if he had nothing to do with that, merely recognizing the potential and investing Apple money and reputation in building and selling millions of them would make Jobs highly influential.

And the fact that history shows this wasn't a fluke and he could well do it again lets me put Jobs' influence in the present tense.

And that's a level of influence Linus and Andrew simply don't have.