“After eliminating the clone competition, Jobs set about
eliminating Apple’s high-cost, heavily hyped Rhapsody operating
system and focused on updating the Mac OS.”
“Behind the scenes, he has shown receptiveness to new
technologies that he shunned in past years. “Several years ago,
a Linux developer contacted Steve Jobs and asked why he wasn’t
using the Linux kernel for Rhapsody,” says Jason Haas, marketing
director for Linux PPC Inc., Madison, Wisc. “Several tests had
proven the Linux kernel was much faster. Steve just says, ‘Rhapsody
is a better system. Go away.’ Now we’ve approached Steve again, and
he hasn’t blown us off….“
“In the case of both Jobs and Schmidt, they were able to get
their companies to put aside their enmity toward Microsoft Corp. to
focus on their own strengths and customers.”