Steve Jobs may be a marketing genius and technology visionary (and the envy of Bill Gates), but that doesn't prevent him from being one of the premier flaming assholes of technology history.

Under his influence Wozniak's design for the Apple II was made from "end of life" crap parts and sold at a super-premium price (my first computer was a Franklin because it had a real keyboard and Apple wouldn't allow one because Jobs couldn't type).

The design of the Apple II did everything in software that should have used hardware (including floppy and later hard disk controller) to keep the cost down in favor of obscene profits (even for those days). I remember their use of the video retrace to refresh RAM made diagnosing memory problems a whole lot of fun, and pluging in one of those (just a few bytes, but cheap) RAM modules backwards burned out a row of memory and 4 other chips on the motherboard (I still have a few sets in stock, I think).

Apple became the premier desktop computer, not because of it's quality, but because in his pre-OSS dumbness Dan Briklin wouldn't publish VisiCalc for CP/M-80 because he couldn't copy protect it under that OS. SuperCalc was a near fatal blow and Lotus finished him off (and had its own copy protection epiphany soon after).

But, back to Apple. The Apple II was a horrific success, because of VisiCalc and because it was an open spec anyone could make hardware and software for.

Don Estridge of IBM was tasked with producing (with little budget) a desktop computer IBM needed to fill out their product line (and of which they figured they'd sell a couple thousand, max). Estridge looked at the Apple II and correctly determined the reason for its success, and produced the IBM PC as an imitation Apple II made out of parts only a little newer than what Jobs should have used in the first place.

Steve Jobs, at the same time, looked at the success of the Apple II and said, "Look at all that money being made by other companies. All that money is rightfully Apple's. This will never happen again". As they say, "the rest is history".

Steve Jobs' closed architecture Apple III was a total failure, and it's operating system, SOS (for "Sophisticated Operating System"), was appropriately named. I had to deal with a few of these and basically had to tell their owners they had a rather clumsy door stop and needed to get a computer.

Steve Jobs' "Lisa" was also turning into a flaming failure, so he fired the crew working on the "Macintosh" project, put in his own loyalists, and claimed it as his own.

We're talking about Apple, so I won't detail the arrogant stupidity Steve destroyed Next with.

Steve Jobs' opinion of the army of resellers, consultans, VARs and ISVs necessary to deploy a successful platform is that they are lower than sewer scum, and the company has never shirked at conveying this opinion down to those "unworthys".

Bill Gates looked at the same folks and said, "If I treat these people right, they will make me filthy rich even if my products are pure crap and I do just about nothing". As they say, "the rest is history".

Apple has never been able to maintain a reseller program for even 9 months, and then all those who "got with the program" are totally screwed. Only extreme masochists will sell or support Apple stuff, but Job's powerful "image over substance" approach seems still to drag fools in, as with any other confidence scam.

The small resellers who brought Apple computers to market and and to desktop dominance - well, one day they were all sent a letter saying they were no longer authorized because they were too small - and they all went out of business.

A few years later the midsize dealers were told they were no longer authorized because they were too small, and they went out of business.

Apple once dominated the education market, well over 80%. Apple education resellers were as fanatically dedicated as any Jonestown cult member. One day, Apple, with a stroke of the pen, cut them all off and gave the education market to a couple large companies who's executives were friends of Apple executives. To be fair, Jobs was gone then, but his spirit lived on.

This move killed the largest minority owned business in Los Angeles, Sun Computers. I remember the radio ads nearly two years after closing telling that their assets would be auctioned off by the bankruptcy court, but two years is hard on the value of comuter equipment.

This time many dealers were ready, and they went right back into the schools and said, "We can't sell you Apple products, but we can still provide the support you can't get from the companies you can buy from, and, uh, while we're here, how would you like to look at some of these IBM computers we have - they're popular in the businesses your students will be working for, you know". Apple's education dominance didn't last another year.

I remember years ago when Apple was making another big VAR push. They approached me at a major distributor show and tried to recruit me. I looked at the Apple person and said, "I've been in this industry a long time and I have a good memory". Without a word he turned away to look for less experienced marks.

Some companies did take up the deal, blinded by the flash and image, they invested large amounts of money in seting up to promote Apple products. I read an article interviewing one a year later. This company invested in the training, hardware and development time to integrate and deploy some attractive vertical applications.

They went in to a major client and showed them what could be done. They did the sales, the proposal, developed the solution - and then they told Apple they had a live one on the hook. Apple simply turned over the account to a favored volume reseller who went in and sold the products for less than the VAR could buy them for, and adopted the well documented solution the VAR had developed. That VAR wrote off his entire Apple investment and never again attempted to sell an Apple product. Others did not fare as well - this company at least stayed in business.

There are many other stories just as sordid, such as all the VARS who developed solutions based on the Apple Newton, but I think we have enough history for now - back to the present.

Apple is the feature of the most recent issue of "VAR Business" which details the deliberate and total destruction of the long standing (suffering) Apple dealer, VAR and consultant chanel. Large and successful companies have been deliberately and systematically destroyed and their customers left with no-one to turn to for meaningful support. By the end of this year I expect none will remain.

So Apple's recent treatment of bloggers and other Apple product supporters is entirely consistent with the company's history and personality (an extension of Steve Job's planetary size ego).

In conclusion, Steve Jobs may be a technology and marketing visionary and the envy of Bill Gates, but at the core he, and Apple which is a reflection of his ego, are not rotten, they are pure unadulterated shit. Anyone who deals with this company will get his "just deserts" (and desert ain't gonna taste real good).

People with long memories and sharp knives will make sure Apple stays a bit player forever - flashy products and "vision" will not prevail.

Disclaimer: Since I correctly evaluated the personality of this company in 1979 and acted appropriately, I have not been injured in any way by Apple or its activities (beyond losing a couple of marginal accounts in the advertising business to Macs). I remain a disinterested observer, but am in the habit of calling a turd a turd even if it is highly polished.

. . in that no other company has an unquestioning army of worshipers to keep them alive no matter what they do. No other company could have made so many mistakes on such a scale as Apple has and survive.

I recall some years back eating lunch at a Thai restaurant. In came 6 or 7 guys wearing "screw the establishment" casual with a uniformity of style and grooming the strictest dress code would be hard put to enforce. I said out loud, "Mac users". Sure enough, they sat down and started talking about their Macs before even looking at the menu.

. . . I'm having a hard time conceptualizing Amiga users as an "army".