[JohnBooty]

I agree with you: Ritchie's contributions, because they're at the core of so many things we use (including iOS and OSX) are more influential than Jobs' contributions (which are pretty darn influential).

However, please re-read the headline you've got an issue with: "How Steve Jobs' Love of Simplicity Fueled A Design Revolution."

Does the article claim that Jobs' creations were the simplest ever? Or that his simplicity trumped that of Ritchie? No.

Also note that the article is clearly talking about a design revolution. Did Ritchie spark a design revolution? No.

(Well, he did, in operating system design. But that's really not the sense of the word "design" the article is using...)

So I don't understand what your problem is, other than the fact that you don't like Jobs' contributions a great deal. The claims made by the article are utterly orthogonal to the importance of Ritchie's work!

[overbroad]

"(Well, he did, ... "

That's all I'm saying, really.

I see "simplicity" as orthogonal to the idea that Steve Jobs led a revolution in design. I see the so-called revolution he led as being beautiful hardware enclosures, of all sizes. But this is just my opinion. I expect many would disagree.

I also expect many would not choose to look at these devices past their enclosures and what they see on the screen. From that limited perspective, it certainly looks like Jobs made everything simple. (Me, I think Ritchie and his colleagues did that. They dared to simplify when no one else would. Apple like many others took the ball and ran with it. But unlike many others, they also build hardware that looks fantastic... from a marketing standpoint, this is a winning combination.)