'Microsoft makes third-rate products, has no taste': Old interview of Steve Jobs viral amid outage

As the world grappled with Microsoft's outage, an old video of Steve Jobs surfaced online.

On July 19, a severe global outage disrupted Microsoft's services, affecting multiple sectors including aviation, supermarkets, and banking operations worldwide. The outage, which was attributed to a problematic software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, coincided with a resurgence of an old interview featuring late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. In the 1995 interview, Jobs criticised Microsoft for producing "third-rate products" and having "no taste."

The widespread outage, which has been linked to a defective update from CrowdStrike, caused significant operational disruptions. Microsoft, in a statement to CBS News, confirmed that a CrowdStrike update had caused the global IT systems to fail. "Earlier today, a CrowdStrike update was responsible for bringing down a number of IT systems globally," Microsoft said.

As memes and reactions proliferated on social media, the resurfaced Steve Jobs interview added fuel to the online discourse. In the interview with tech journalist Bob Cringely, Jobs remarked, "The only problem with Microsoft is that they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And what that means is - I don't mean that in a small way. I mean that in a big way. They don't think of original ideas and don't bring much culture into their products."

Jobs elaborated on his views, pointing out that his issue wasn't with Microsoft's success but with the quality of their products. "Well, why is that important? Well, proportionally-spaced fonts come from typesetting and beautiful books. That's where one gets the idea. If it weren't for the Mac, they would never have that in their products. And so, I guess I am saddened. Not by Microsoft's success. I have no problem with their success. They've earned their success for the most part. I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third-rate products."

Steve Jobs about Microsoft - They make third class products. Today many people would be feeling it.#Microsoft #bluescreen #Windows

pic.twitter.com/IYnKvGaFaf

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— Ashutosh Mishra (@caashutosh22) July 19, 2024

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz issued a statement to clarify the situation, emphasising that the incident was not a security breach. "This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed," Kurtz wrote on X, formerly Twitter. He explained that the defect in the CrowdStrike update had been pinpointed and addressed.

Later in the day, Microsoft announced that it had completed mitigation actions and observed recovery across all previously impacted Microsoft 365 apps and services. "We're entering a period of monitoring to ensure impact is fully resolved," Microsoft stated on social media.

CrowdStrike, based in Austin, Texas, is a prominent cybersecurity firm whose services are widely used by businesses and government agencies operating on Microsoft platforms. The defect in its update led to what is being considered one of the largest global IT outages in history. The swift response from both Microsoft and CrowdStrike aimed to reassure users and restore normalcy as quickly as possible.