Happy Birthday, Bill Gates! You Made Steve Jobs Possible

Happy birthday to future Nobel Peace Prize winner Bill Gates, who turned 56 on Friday. Among his many achievements is having made the Steve Jobs we remember possible.

For without Bill, Steve would have watched Apple implode after his 1996 return from exile. No iPod, no iTunes, no iPhone, no iPad. Probably no Macintosh

More on that in a moment.

After Steve’s death, friends of mine used the occasion to compare Jobs to Gates, generally giving Steve benefit of every doubt and piling on Bill.

That just isn’t right.

Not to take anything away from Steve, but who would you rather have as a next-door neighbor? The guy best known for his reality distortion field and nasty disposition or the guy who is spending his billions wiping out polio and malaria?

Would you prefer the guy who denied paternity of his first child — while mom collected welfare — or the guy who made himself an expert on tropical diseases so he could help save Africa’s children from them?

Would you rather sit down with the guy who convinced Warren Buffet to likewise give away his fortune, or the guy not known for having given away any of his own?

Bill Gates has been unjustly vilified many times over the years, but time has been good to him. Our grandchildren will remember Gates not for Microsoft but for curing diseases, helping the poor and improving education. That’s why I think he and his wife, Melinda, will win a Nobel.

Most of the anti-competitive practices Gates was accused of, Apple actually carried out. At some point, Apple may face an anti-trust reckoning for its control of an entire ecosystem of entertainment and information.

But, Apple has this teflon exterior — it makes people happy — and folks don’t complain (much). Like many of you, I am a very happy participant in the Apple ecosystem.

Bill Gates never tried to gain the total control of his platforms to the extent that Steve Jobs considered his personal right as King of Apple.

Back to Bill’s allowing the Steve Jobs we remember to exist:

Without an infusion of Microsoft cash, there very easily might have been no iTunes, no iPod, no iPhone and no iPad. No Steve as we remember him. If in 1997 Microsoft hadn’t invested $150 million in Apple (settling a lingering lawsuit in the process) and guaranteed further development of MacOffice, Apple wouldn’t be here today.

Saving Apple was arguably Microsoft’s worst-ever investment, saving what has become a worst-nightmare competitor. Jobs later said Apple was 90 days from bankrupt when he returned.

Bill Gates and Microsoft ignited the PC revolution and made small computers an important part of all our lives. Steve Jobs improved on what Bill and Microsoft started, but only after Microsoft saved Apple.

Gates is among the greatest living Americans and world citizens. In a maybe less than a decade, when polio becomes the second human disease to be eradicated (after smallpox), Bill will have been right there helping administer the final punches. What an incredible day that will be.

Malaria will be harder, but in terms of improving the health of all humans, it is the greatest challenge.

I don’t want to take anything away from Steve Jobs’ accomplishments, but they won’t last. Long after iDevices have been forgotten, Bill Gates’ accomplishments — in humanitarian fields far removed from Microsoft — will live on.

Happy Birthday, Bill. I hope you have very many more.