SiliconBeat

Back on June 20, 1999, a made-for-TV movie called “Pirates of Silicon Valley” first aired. The movie chronicled the rivalry between Apple’s Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates.

This happened exactly one month before I moved to Silicon Valley from North Carolina. As I recall, the movie got lukewarm reviews, and I never saw it. Or even really thought about it, for that matter.

But recently, it’s popped up on my radar in rather random fashion. One of the keywords I track on Twitter is “silicon valley.” And at least a couple times each day, someone makes a reference to the movie:

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It’s all yours, Steve Ballmer.

The Bud Abbott of Redmond, and perhaps the tech world’s most famous sidekick, has officially taken the reigns of the world’s most important technology company at an auspicious moment. There were plenty of tributes written last week, and over the weekend, to Bill Gates, who officially stepped down from his daily duties at Microsoft on Friday.

And what happens on the first day of the Ballmer show? The company discontinues sales of Windows XP despite the protest of many users who have refused to upgrade to the the new version, Windows Vista. My favorite headline on the mess: “Hasta La Vista, Windows XP.” Read the rest of this entry »