Mister Jobs, you've changed our lives

Today, Steve Jobs resigned from Apple.

The first time, I heard about mister Jobs, I must have been about 12. My Dad brought a Mac home and opened the case to show me the names engraved inside. I don’t remember if I was astonished the most by the signatures having the look of Han Solo frozen in carbonite, by the fact that only 5 screws had to be removed to open the case or by the sleek design of the motherboard. In fact the whole design of this computer was magic to a boy my age.

Then, there is the NeXT step. “Hey David, look what I just bought from the US” said my dad, staring at a 12’’ black cube on the dining room table. Using this computer was like living in a dream. Can you imagine I used this amazing computer in 1989, one year before the Mac Plus was discontinued? That’s crazy. There should at least be a century between the two. The urge to open the case I still remember! I think a single screw would keep the case closed. This beauty you’d find inside. Anybody who’s worked on a NeXT computer and later on a NeXTdimension as I did, knows there is a before and an after. Thank you mister Jobs. (Or maybe should I thank M. Sculley)

At about the same time, Pixar, acquired by Steve Jobs, would release short animated movies like Luxo Jr or Knick Knack, and you could try (wish? dream?) to do the same using RenderMan on a NeXT computer.

The third time Steve Jobs took a noticeable part in my life is just a few months after than when my best friend and I won a (near end of life) Mac Plus at Paris Apple Expo. We teamed up to answer a quiz about Apple. One of the answer, I still remember 20 years later, was “-D- Steve Jobs is vegetarian”. Heck I didn’t even really know what being vegetarian meant.

Since then, I’ve owned quite a few macs (one of which has even less than a single screw to open it. Guess which), watched even more keynotes, almost cried when I broke my first iPod, got mad when I first saw the iPhone, got goosebumps watching this video. Mister Jobs, you’ve changed our lives. You’re not the only one, but you did. I wish you well.