CARLSBAD, Calif.--Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage at the D5 conference Wednesday night for a rare joint appearance.
I'm in an overflow room with a half-dozen other reporters, many of whom flew to San Diego to watch the main event on TV from a room several hundred yards from the ballroom.
The keynote kicked off with a 1983 video of a young Jobs hosting the "Macintosh software dating game" with three software CEOs--Gates, Mitch Kapor of Lotus and Fred Gibbons.
In the video, a young Gates in a blue polo shirt tells Jobs how important the Mac is to Microsoft. "During 1984 Microsoft expects to get half of its revenue from Macintosh software," Gates says.
It moved on to a video of the famous 1997 Macworld conference where Jobs announced Microsoft's investment in Apple. In the video, Gates appears via satellite to a chorus of boos from the Macworld crowd.
Four people then walk out on the D5 stage--Gates, Jobs and Wall Street Journal columnists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. Jobs is wearing his trademark black mock turtleneck, jeans and tennis shoes. Gates is wearing a button down shirt, dark pants and shoes.
The discussion began with Swisher asking each what the other's biggest contribution was.
"Bill built the first software company in the industry," Jobs said. "The business model turned out to be one that worked very well for the industry. Bill was really focused on software before anyone else had a clue."
Gates responded by first noting that he is not the author of a popular Steve Jobs satire site.
"I want to clarify I'm not Fake Steve Jobs," he quipped.
Gates praised Jobs for pursuing the idea that the computer could really be a mass-market product and then for betting heavy again on the Mac, despite the Lisa's lack of popularity.
They then delved back into the early days of the Mac when Microsoft and Apple worked closely together.
"When Steve first came up, it was going to be a lot cheaper computer than it ended up being," Gates said. "That was fine."
They discussed the Mac versus PC ads.
"PC guy is great," Jobs said.
"His mother loves him," Gates quipped back.
"PC Guy is what makes it all work," Jobs said, leaning over to Gates. "It's worth thinking about."