Warbler said:

grisan said:

On a personal level it is sad and tragic if someone dies pretty young because of cancer. My mother died because of esophagael cancer last year, so I know how hard and painful this is for family and friends.

As an IT professional, that has a very strong dislike for Apple, its overpriced products, blatant ripoffs of other products, ruthless business strategies, explotation of workers, pollution, non-conformity to open standards, lawsuits against other innovative, competing companies, etc. I can only say: Thank God his tyranny is finally over. Let's hope Apple will eventually get on the right path.

I never realized he exploited workers. or that he polluted. what is meant by non-conformity to open standards?

grisan, surely you know that the negative parts of corporate activity happen with many/most/all tech companies. I really don't know how bad Apple was on those fronts, but to be honest we'd have to view it in context of other such companies.

I hold a negative view of Apple products but what makes them special is that they operate in such a relatively closed system focused on design as much as technology. It takes a lot to sustain such a business model. I wager, but Apple has done it for this long. Whether Apple will continue to do so without Jobs...I doubt it. I don't think there is a "right path" but there is a more generic one. I don't desire Apple to lose what makes it special as I imagine it has a unique competitive influence on other companies.

Whether we need to reform patent (I think so) and other laws is a separate matter.