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Comment by dm8 | Hacker News Reader

Wow, Bill Gates thinks his portrayal in Pirates of Silicon Valley was very accurate (http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/18bhme/im_bill_gates_c...).

Even Woz had said that the film accurately portrayed all the personalities.

However, we should appreciate Bill for his honesty. He is not shown in good light in that movie.

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Honestly, of the two icons shown in the movie, I'd rather take Gates to dinner over Jobs. Sure, he's shown as being a conniving schemer, but at the same time much less of a reprehensible human being (PoSV was not kind in its depiction of Job's handling of his daughter).

I had dinner with Bill a few times in the 1980s. Discussions were intense. Somewhat too much of trying to prove ourselves (both our faults).

I only talked once w/ Steve for a couple of minutes, in the same era. He seemed like a jerk.

Any funny stories you'd care to share from those experiences?

http://www.softwarememories.com/2009/04/25/wsj-article-on-bi... has a bit.

From the IAmA:

Q: "How was your relationship with Steve jobs? I always hoped that y'all were really good friends and competitors."

A: "He and I respected each other. Our biggest joint project was the Mac where Microsoft had more people on the project than Apple did as we wrote a lot of applications."

So Bill might be giving away some money nowadays, his character doesn't seem to have changed much, still taking credit where it isn't due.

I didn't get the sense that this was meant with disrespect. Overall, I think he did stay classy throughout the AMA.

All I have to go on is a handful of interviews, but I've never seen Steve Jobs act like anything other than a condescending douche bag towards Bill Gates and Microsoft.

Anyone know if there's any public evidence that they shared a mutual respect? If there is, I'd like to read / watch it.

Well, Walt Mossberg interviewed both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at D5 in 2007. The gents seemed to have fun, and they complimented each other plenty.

Video: http://allthingsd.com/video/?video_id=60C4F9FA-9AD5-4D04-8BB...

Transcript: http://allthingsd.com/20070531/d5-gates-jobs-transcript/

Thanks. I'm not surprised that it exists, I just think the media likes showing the clips where Steve is busting Bill's balls over Windows supposed inferiority.

I'm going go finish the video now. I appreciate it.

In that movie Gates is shown to be ruthless in his business dealings with other companies, but Steve Jobs is ruthless in his dealings with his own staff. In the movie, Steve Jobs actively promoted infighting between teams and mandated insane working conditions.

Based entirely on the movie, Steve Jobs is clearly shown as the worse of the two.

Of course, Gates mandated insane working conditions as well.

It's an interesting showdown of personalities. Steve Jobs had invited the actor who portrayed him at WWDC. So looks like Jobs also thought portrayal was accurate. I think both of them had their own flaws as individuals but their strengths made them what they are.

The keyword was 'reasonably accurate'

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