Saturday, April 21, 2007

Pirates of Silicon Valley

Well, we all know about Pirates of the Caribbean; Captain Jack Sparrow and his notorious team of sailors, don't we? But what's this pirates of silicon valley all about? Can you guess from the pictures?















You guessed right. This drama-cum-movie is about the two giants of Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, and their rivalry during early establishment days of Apple and Microsoft. It's about how they transformed themselves from college kids to billionaires. Both made a fortune in their own ways, but one thing was common between them; both stole the technology from others. First Steve Jobs stole GUI and mouse from Xerox and then Gates stole it from Jobs. It's not a big surprise, but it's good to watch the actual incidents that happened during that time. There is one interesting quote from Jobs in the movie.
"Good artists copy, great artists steal".

Wow, what a nice way to defend piracy! The drama was made in 1999, but I don't know how come I did not see it before. Perhaps I was too busy myself doing piracy in my undergrad exams ;-)

Both the actors have performed brilliantly and portrayed the personalities of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates very nicely. There's once scene in the movie I liked. At one point, when Steve Jobs realizes that Bill Gates copied his prototype mac and used it for windows, he gets mad at Gates. But then it's too late and he cannot do anything about it. So he says to Gates in desperation, "We're better than you are! We have better stuff."

The reply of Bill Gates takes the cake. He says very calmly "You don't get it, Steve. That doesn't matter!"

Most of the incidents depicted are based on actual events and that's what makes this movie interesting. A must see for OS freaks. And for all who use computers, a nice watch!