The Movie Pirates of Silicon Valley

"Good artists copy, great artists steal" is a famous quote from the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, directed by Martyn Burke in 1999, to describe the extreme competition between the two young inventors Bill Gates and Steve Jobs back in the year 1970. The movie is based on the book Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine and it shows how Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corporation became from a garage and a university dorm activity to big multinational software corporations. Since the computer industry exhibition "Computer Faire" held in San Francisco (California) in 1977 Steve Jobs and Bill Gates had a big success displaying their new inventions and, at the same time, they both started competing with each other. Steve Jobs stole the first invention of the mouse in 1979 created by Xerox Corporation thanks to the influence of his charismatic personality. Bill Gates bought an Operating System from an unknown student inventor in 1980 and sold it to the IBM, an American multinational technology and consulting corporation that manufactures computer hardwares and softwares and, eventually, he decided to join Apple Inc. to steal Job's new operating system in 1985 and launched it under the name of his new corporation, Microsoft.

Not only the two CEOs had a big competition with each other but even the users were deployed as two different troops during a battle or a war. The audience, of course, has a big role in this business, that's why the features of the products are also important factors to consider. Nowadays, PC (personal computer) that runs Microsoft's operating system is being challenged by the iMac owned by Apple Inc. Both computers have similar features but, at the same time, they differ in completing key tasks. The reason why some users choose a PC rather than an iMac or vice versa, is totally based on their needs.

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