[copenja]

Do you feel that the value of Steve Jobs is underappreciated? In the mainstream media he has received perhaps more attention and praise than anyone else in the computer industry. He is widely considered to be a genius and given nearly sole credit for a wide range of innovations.

I think it's okay for the guys who invented the GUI to also get a small fist bump.

[pdpi]

In mainstream media, Jobs is a god amongst men. In technical circles, he's demonised. The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle, and the HN audience in particular is one that probably needs reminding that he did have valuable input to contribute.

[michaelmrose]

"The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle"

This statement ticks me off to an unreasonable degree. The truth is complicated. Any clear spectrum drawn between 2 points is an artificial construct. There is no reason to suppose that the truth would just happen to lie in the middle of an artificial spectrum. In fact if it did on average it would be incredibly strange.

Further the world is full of morons who espouse clearly ridiculous things and the truth doesn't lie somewhere midway between sanity and insanity.

Jobs is a great businessman who excelled at turning other peoples ideas into piles of money not at making the world a better place. People like kay changed the way people interact with computers.

Jobs isn't halfway between god and demon hes just not that important.

[blackguardx]

I'm not sure what you mean. There are plenty of people here that recognize Jobs' positive contributions. In fact, most HN threads about Jobs devolve into acolytes fighting detractors.

[cptskippy]

I think the demonization you're referring to is rooted in the fact that he receives or takes credit for innovations he helped refine but definitely didn't invent. Where as the inventers receive little to no credit of appreciation for their contributions.

[mehrdada]

> The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle

I have found [irrespective of this case] that this statement is just not true. Often, the truth is not in the middle but at one of the extremes, or even beyond them.