As I read it Gates is defending his statement that buying NeXT was stupid given the known facts at the time the deal was done. He does so by downplaying the NeXT software lineage in Mac OS X, but also by claiming that the real gem they got from NeXT was Steve Jobs, who Amelio couldn't have known would go on to be a great CEO, because he was well known at the time to be a maniac.
It seems like something Gruber would agree with if phrased slightly differently (e.g. "the most important thing Apple got from NeXT was Steve Jobs") so I don't know why he's getting so bent out of shape about a quote from another book which Bill Gates himself immediately questions the truth of in the the Jobs bio.
(And is it just me or is it a stretch to attribute the iPod interface to NeXT? Choosing an item from a list and going to a sublist isn't something I remember them inventing.)
He doesn't have a problem with Gates's statement, he has a problem with Isaacson's lack of research. Gates didn't write the book, Isaacson did. This is just one example where Jobs says something true, Isaacson thinks he's lying and instead trusts someone else who are either lying, or don't know the truth.
Who is Isaacson trusting? Bill Gates? If so why publish text that Gates disagrees with the truth of. Amelio? If so why publish the fact that Gates disputes that version? It sounds like he doesn't really "trust" either account, and why should he?
Gruber presents this as the best example of Issacson not trusting something true Jobs said and "trusting" the lies of others (as do you) but really it's just nerdy nitpicking about how far you should emphasise and editorialise the subjectivity of 3rd party accounts, there's no quote from Jobs being disproved in this example it's just Amelio (who in the anecdote just picked NeXT over NT!) describing Gates angry reaction at the time and Gates commenting about it later. Gruber's reaction is a total non-sequitur. He can't cope with an angry outburst by a rival that's just lost a business deal being left unchallenged, when the context is clear.
It seems like something Gruber would agree with if phrased slightly differently (e.g. "the most important thing Apple got from NeXT was Steve Jobs") so I don't know why he's getting so bent out of shape about a quote from another book which Bill Gates himself immediately questions the truth of in the the Jobs bio.
(And is it just me or is it a stretch to attribute the iPod interface to NeXT? Choosing an item from a list and going to a sublist isn't something I remember them inventing.)