Last Updated on April 27, 2026 by Dave Farquhar
Though I’m sure you’ve seen it hundreds of other places, the tech industry lost its most memorable pioneer and greatest marketer today. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died, aged 56, after years of declining health.Mr. Jobs, of course, introduced the first commercially successful computers to use a mouse, and brought the many innovations of Xerox PARC–the mouse, the graphical interface, the laser printer–out of a research lab and into our homes. He turned Unix into something ordinary mortals could use. He co-founded Apple, left, and when he returned, he turned Apple from a fast-fading powerhouse into a company too large for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. And along the way he turned Pixar from a neglected division in George Lucas’ empire into the creator of many beloved movies, all computer-animated, and the first ones appeared before computers were even a fixture in every home.
Mr. Jobs was human like everyone else, but undeniably an accomplished one who left his indelible mark on, by my count, four industries: computers, telephones, music, and movies. And I expect at least some parts of his legacy will extend beyond this century.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.