Steve Jobs, left, and Bill Gates.Beck Diefenbach/Reuters; Mike Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times
- Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates and Apple cofounder Steve Jobs began building their companies right around the same time, and it was a natural catalyst for their rivalry.
- While the two founders had periods of civility, at other times, they were at each other's throats.
- Jobs insulted Gates' taste and imagination, while Gates once described Jobs as "weirdly flawed as a human being."
- But the two execs appeared to get along better later in life, and when Jobs died in 2011, Gates said that they "spurred each other on, even as competitors."
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs never quite got along.
Over the course of 30-plus years, the two went from cautious allies to bitter rivals to something almost approaching friends — sometimes, they were all three at the same time.
It seems unlikely that Apple would be where it is today without Microsoft, or Microsoft without Apple.
Here's the history of the love-hate relationship between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.