A Brief Roundup of Selected Steve Jobs Tributes

Much of Apple's advertisement irritated me, for example, the smug slacker guy representing Apple juxtaposed against the vaguely Bill Gates-looking conventional guy representing the Microsoft approach. Nevertheless, I always believed that Apple was onto something more than skin-deep bohemianism. Steve Jobs understood the relationship of the aesthetic to the utilitarian, he understood the importance of liberating and encouraging creativity, and he demonstrated that the hipster sensibility could be reconciled to the capitalist ethos of competition.

I've never thought of myself as being particularly hip, but I am perhaps more a defender of the conventional than an exemplar. And I am in a creative occupation, where I would have needed to be positively opposed to Macintosh machines in order to avoid them. As it is, I've worked on Macs my entire career and always felt that it was fortunate that I was initiated early on, while working for my college newspaper. Thus I'm happy to throw in my own appreciation of Jobs, alone with this short collection of others, some new, some of older vintage.

Since news of Jobs death was announced yesterday afternoon, Samsung, currently in a contentious legal battle with Apple, issued a gracious tribute to Jobs.

Forbes published a succinct, well-wrought biography of Jobs this morning.

Here's a brief appreciation from our InformationWeek colleague Fritz Nelson, complete with some interesting links, including "the resignation speech we wish Steve Jobs had given."

Virginia Postrel wrote a piece well worth reading about how Steve Jobs made business cool again.

Elizabeth Scalia, amid a piece replete with interesting links, asks whether Jobs will be the last capitalist we're permitted to admire.

Bloomberg's 2010 biographical video on Jobs is a good watch chronicling the ups and downs and final triumph of Jobs.

Anyone wanting to understand the charisma and creativity of college dropout Steve Jobs should watch his famous 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University.

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio