Jobs: Windows is hell

Compares iTunes for Windows to iced drink in Hades

By Gregg Keizer

May 31, 2007 12:00 PM ET

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Computerworld - Apple Inc.'s CEO, Steve Jobs, compared Windows to hell in an onstage conversation with The Wall Street Journal's personal technology columnist, Walt Mossberg, at the newspaper's D: All Things Digital conference yesterday.

After Mossberg asked Jobs about the popularity of Apple's iTunes music store software and Jobs said that more than 300 million copies were in circulation, Mossberg replied, "So that makes you an enormous Windows software developer".

"We are," said Jobs.

"How does that make you feel?"

"We've got cards and letters from lots of people that say iTunes is their favorite app on Windows," Jobs said, then shrugged, paused and smiled. "It's like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell," he said.

Although the comment likely won't rank as one of Jobs' most famous Windows swipes -- that might be his 1996 "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste, they have absolutely no taste" -- the remark got a loud laugh from the D: audience.

During a later Q&A with attendees, Jobs acknowledged that he has read some of the entries on "The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs" blog, where an unidentified writer known as Fake Steve Jobs (FSJ) poses as the Apple CEO.

On the blog today, FSJ commented on "his" Windows equals hell riff. "The analogy isn't perfect," said FSJ. "You can't get out of hell. You can get out of Windows."

Related Computerworld Analysis and Discussion:

How Steve Jobs blew his iPhone keynote
Robert L. Mitchell: Bill Gates' piracy confession
Daily IT Blogwatch: Gates: I need more visas (and flying beer)
Ken Gagne: Steve Jobs, Slayer of DRM
Joyce Carpenter: Mac OS X better than Vista which is better than XP which is better than ...
Shark Bait: Apple's mobile phone: A must-have product, or will it go the way of the Newton?

Read more about operating systems in Computerworld's Operating Systems Knowledge Center.

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