By Jason Apuzzo. Steve Jobs, America’s greatest modern innovator, passed away today after a long battle with cancer. He has been a personal hero of mine for the past thirty years, ever since the time when I owned a little ‘Fat’ Mac back in the early 80s – called ‘fat’ at the time because the little machine had a whole 512K of memory. I still own it.
I suspect Steve Jobs was probably a hero to many Libertas readers, as well.
I think we all knew this day was coming, sooner rather than later – but that doesn’t make it any easier when a visionary and deeply inspiring American of this magnitude passes. If you have any thoughts or memories you wish to relate, feel free to do so in the comments section below. It may be a while before I can write about Jobs with proper clarity; for people of my generation, frankly, we all feel like we grew up with this person. I know that he certainly drove so many of us to think more creatively and ambitiously than we might otherwise have. That’s a truly uncommon legacy.
As a passionate Macintosh user and former Palo Alto and Menlo Park resident, where Apple’s innovate spirit seems to flow in the water, this is a tough day. Our condolences to Steve Jobs’ family, and to the larger Apple community.
Libertas, of course, is produced on a Macintosh. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
Posted on October 5th, 2011 at 7:19pm.
Our generation’s Thomas Edison…..a “real” transcendent figure.
Absolutely true.
I’ve made my living working on Macs for 12 years now, so Steve Jobs has directly effected my life.
This great capitalist will be missed.
I remember when the Mac opened up desktop publishing in the late 80s. Without the Mac, I would never been able to start up The Yale Free Press, which was an alternative-conservative college paper that’s still around today. Jobs helped make publishing practical for people on a budget – which was a huge development, long before the internet took over as a publishing medium.
That’s a great story, Jason.