Top all-time · #2468
Jonathan Schwartz
Personal blog · jonathanischwartz.wordpress.combusinessstartups
Jonathan Schwartz writes What I Couldn't Say..., a personal blog at jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com about business and startups. Since 2010, 31 different Hacker News readers have linked it 33 times, most often “Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal”. The last post was in 2012, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (21) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link the blog of Jonathan Schwartz, former Sun CEO, mainly for his 2010 post on patents and IP and his anecdotes about Steve Jobs and the Project Looking Glass desktop.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 21 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Opinions and insights from a former CEO
Most-linked posts?
- Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal14 people · 14 mentions · first linked 2010-03-09
- Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal7 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2018-09-18
- Jonathan Schwartz on Steve Jobs2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-10-06
- Jonathan Schwartz Blog2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-02-16
What Hacker News says?
Jonathan Schwartz, last CEO of Sun Microsystems, in March 2006: "Frankly, it’s been tough to convince the largest enterprises that a public grid represents an attractive future. Just as I’m sure George Westinghouse was confounded by the Chief Electricity Officers of the time that resisted buying power from a grid, rather than building their own internal utilities." https://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2006/03/20/…
Comment linking /2006/03/20/the-network-is-the-computer/
on “Why is Kubernetes getting so popular?”Submitted Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal as a story · 209 points
HN discussionJonathan Schwartz had a great article about patents and IP where he relayed some stories about the stand offs between companies with regards to patents. Seems very relevant here: http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artis...
Comment linking /2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
on “Oracle sues Google over use of Java in Android”Submitted Steve Jobs: "I'll just sue you" (2010) as a story · 163 points
HN discussionAlso worth reading again is former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz's anecdotes on Apple, Microsoft and Kodak trying to shake down Sun using patents: https://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-arti...
Comment linking /2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
on “IBM sues Airbnb for patent royalties”Submitted A Picture Emerges - Ex-Sun CEO, Jonathan Schwartz' next move as a story · 28 points
HN discussionSteve Jobs even felt threatened enough by looking glass to call Jonathan Schwartz (Sun's CEO) and tried to intimidate him: https://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-arti...
Comment linking /2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
on “Compiz: Ubuntu Desktop's little known best friend”Submitted Jonathan Schwartz Blog as a story · 25 points
HN discussionSpeaking of licensing and Jobs's quick decision-making, the following is what you don't usually hear from Jobs's inner circle: ( https://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-arti... ) "I feel for Google – Steve Jobs threatened to sue me, too. In 2003, after I unveiled a prototype Linux desktop called Project Looking Glass*, Steve called my office to let me know the graphical effects were 'stepping all ove…
Comment linking /2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
on “Steve Jobs licensed Amazon’s one-click patent for $1M in one phone call”Submitted Jonathan Schwartz on Steve Jobs as a story · 5 points
HN discussionthere is a great article by Jonathan Schwartz - ex CEO of sun about Looking Glas, that Steve Jobs threatened to sue him over this. https://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-arti... Steve didn't, but Jonathan killed the project non the less, because he listend to consultants instead of listenting to devs.
Comment linking /2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
on “Looking Glass, a revolutionary window manager revealed in 2006”Submitted Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal as a story · 2 points
HN discussion"Although we ended up abandoning Looking Glass, Steve’s threat didn’t figure into our decision (the last thing enterprises wanted was a new desktop – in hindsight, exactly the wrong audience to poll (we should’ve been asking developers, not CIO’s)" -- linked from the wikipedia article https://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-arti... I'm guessing it didn't help though.
Comment linking /2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
on “Looking Glass, a revolutionary window manager revealed in 2006”Submitted Ex-Sun-CEO:“Steve Jobs threatened to sue me” over Project Looking Glass as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYes and no. Your post makes it seem like this is the first time anyone has heard of Steve Jobs threatening to sue. Apple sued Microsoft over Windows, then got Microsoft to invest and commit Office to Macintosh for 5 years + $150 million to settle litigation between the two companies. Jobs threatened to sue former CEO of Sun over a prototype desktop environment[1] [1] http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09…
Comment linking /2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
on “Steve Jobs threatened patent suit to enforce no-hire policy: filing”Submitted Who’s Following Your Family? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYou are the one denying the words of Danese while offering nothing whatsoever to support your claims. Oh really? How about this: Nonetheless she is wrong to characterise the opinion of the Solaris engineering team in the way she does. She is speaking this way because she lost an argument inside Sun, not because her view is representative of the views of Sun or its staff in the way she claims. She, along with many ac…
Comment linking /2006/11/13/a-rising-tide-lifts-all-boats/
on “Linux Performance Analysis and Tools”Submitted Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal « What I Couldn't Say… as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIt's really a giant game of Chess, here. Apple can't possibly expect to win this lawsuit. Jonathan Swartz, former CEO of Sun, had an excellent blog post on the subject: http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artis...
Comment linking /2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
on “HTC disagrees with Apple's actions and will fully defend itself”Submitted Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal (2010) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionRelevant: http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artis... EDIT: I should clarify it's relevant because of the Kodak case at the bottom. Kodak got away with suing Sun because it was so "small" in the software industry Sun couldn't use any of its own patents defensively to prevent the suit from going to court. Conversely, Apple and Sun never got into a slug-fest because each side infringed on so many o…
Comment linking /2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
on “Which Apps are threatened by iOS 5”Submitted Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal (2010) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThis blog post from the former CEO of Sun is perhaps relevant: In 2003, after I unveiled a prototype Linux desktop called Project Looking Glass, Steve called my office to let me know the graphical effects were “stepping all over Apple’s IP.” If we moved forward to commercialize it, “I’ll just sue you.” My response was simple. “Steve, I was just watching your last presentation, and Keynote looks identical to Concurre…
Comment linking /2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
on “Steve Jobs used patents to pressure Bill Gates into 1997 investment in Apple”Submitted Realigning the Stars : Remembrance of Steve by Lighthouse's founder as a story · 1 points
HN discussionActually, Schwartz has a new tell-all blog: http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/
Comment linking /
on “Larry Ellison On Sun Ex-CEO: Blogging Was Silly Diversion”It basically was Sun's way to make budget. I would hope Oracle just does away with it. https://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/will-the-... We signed a contract through which we’d make their toolbar optionally available to our audience via the Java update mechanism. They paid us a much appreciated fee, which increased dramatically when we renegotiated the contract a year later. Distribution was becoming q…
Comment linking /2009/05/18/will-the-java-platform-create-the-worlds-largest-app-store/
on “Oracle releases 127 security fixes, 51 for Java alone”Nice read from an insider of the patent wars (Jonathan Shwartz, former Sun CEO): http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artis... He describes why the (software) patents are really needed today. In short: to defend the company against patent lawsuits.
Comment linking /2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
on “Inglourious Software Patents”No new information in this article. Its just a rehashing of Jonathan Schwartz's blog entry: http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artis...
Comment linking /2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
on “Bill Gates and Steve Jobs wanted to sue Sun”You can find out the reason why OpenOffice does not work really well from Sun CEO - http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artis...
Comment linking /2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
on “Why I'm rejecting your email attachment”Leaving aside the question of whether most patents actually document something innovative, if you really think that patents can protect innovation, see the recent post by Jonathan Schwartz: http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artis... . Also, I'd like to suggest one reason to distinguish software patents from others: they hurt more, and they kill certain types of development. If a mechanical engin…
Comment linking /2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/
on “Bilski Oral Argument at the US Supreme Court (Software Patent Case)”
