Dennis Ritchie
Editor's note: This article was originally published in 2011 and updated in 2022.
Eleven years ago next month, we lost two industry giants. One of them would have been 80 years old today.
It is undeniable that Steve Jobs brought us innovation and iconic products like the world had never seen, as well as a cult following of consumers and end users that mythologized him.
The likes of which will probably never be seen again.
At the time of Jobs' passing, I paid my respects and acknowledged his influence[1], like many in this industry, despite my documented differences with the man and his company,
But the "magical" products that Apple and Steve Jobs -- as well as many other companies created owe just about everything we know and write about in modern computing as it exists today to Dennis Ritchie[2], who passed away on October 12, 2011, at the age of 70.[3]
Dennis Ritchie?
The younger generation that reads this column is probably scratching their heads. Who was Dennis Ritchie?
Dennis Ritchie wasn't some meticulous billionaire wunderkind from Silicon Valley that mystified audiences with standing-room-only presentations in his minimalist black mock turtleneck with new shiny products and wild rhetoric aimed against his competitors.
No, Dennis Ritchie was a bearded, somewhat disheveled computer scientist who wore cardigan sweaters and had a messy office.
Unlike Jobs, a college dropout, he was a Ph.D., a Harvard University grad with physics and applied mathematics degrees.
And instead of the gleaming Silicon Valley, he worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories in New Jersey.
Yes, Jersey.As in "What exit?"
Steve Jobs has frequently been compared to Thomas Edison for the quirkiness of his personality