Gates, Jobs Make Rare Joint Appearance

Jun 01, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: Legendary technology rivals Bill Gates and Steve Jobs made a rare joint appearance Wednesday and wasted no time making nice.

"Bill built the first software company in the industry," said Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc. "Bill focused on software before anyone."

Gates, the Microsoft Corp. co-founder, hailed Jobs for taking big risks and developing products with "incredible taste and elegance."

"What Steve has done is quite phenomenal," Gates said.

That set the tone for a 90-minute chat in which the two computer industry icons fielded questions from Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg and technology reporter Kara Swisher at the newspaper's "D: All Things Digital" conference in Carlsbad, Calif.

Jobs and Gates reminisced about early days working together in the 1970s, interspersing their views on the current state of technology.

When Swisher asked for the greatest misunderstanding about their relationship, Jobs joked: "We've kept our marriage secret for over a decade now."

Gates added: "Neither of us have anything to complain about. It's been fun to work together."

Gates dropped out of Harvard University in 1975 to found Microsoft with childhood friend Paul Allen and turned the company into the world's largest maker of computer software.

Jobs and friend Steve Wozniak founded Apple in 1976. Jobs is credited for Apple's recent renaissance with innovative products like the iPod.

"The way (Jobs) does things is just different," Gates said. "It's magical."

Jobs said he admired Microsoft's ability to collaborate with other technology companies.

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