Of the end of two contrasting legacies

Dennis Ritchie's death did not make a big news as that of Steve Jobs's. This is a perfect example of how our thoughts and beliefs are strongly governed by what we see or what we are made to see. We cannot compare these two geniuses as they were like apple and orange. Unlike Jobs, who was a college dropout, Ritchie was Ph.D, a Harvard University grad with degrees in Physics and Applied Mathematics. And instead of the gleaming Silicon Valley, he worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories. And Dennis developed "C" programming language without which I doubt there would be any android, iPhone, iMac, smart phones and all these beautifully crafted devices. Ritchie never sought/had the public's eye but his contributions and legacy in the computer world played a key role - including that of Apple's success. Contrastingly, Jobs was never an engineer. He democratize technology, bringing it out from the realms of geeks and engineers and programmers to common people in the form of iPod, iPhone, iMac and iPad. While Ritchie would have liked a quiet exit like that of a "C" program that would execute quickly without much flair printing "Goodbye World!" on the console, on the other hand, Jobs would have preferred a crisp, clear goodbye message that would pop up with a soft touch. RIP.


PS:- So, whenever you see an iPhone or an iMac, please remember that Dennis Ritchie is the other man standing with Steve Jobs residing in these devices.

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