After informing Gassée that Apple was buying NeXT, Amelio had what turned out to be an even more uncomfortable task: telling Bill Gates. “He went into orbit,” Amelio recalled. Gates found it ridiculous, but perhaps not surprising, that Jobs had pulled off this coup. “Do you really think Steve Jobs has anything there?” Gates asked Amelio. “I know his technology, it’s nothing but a warmed-over UNIX, and you’ll never be able to make it work on your machines.” Gates, like Jobs, had a way of working himself up, and he did so now: “Don’t you understand that Steve doesn’t know anything about technology? He’s just a super salesman. I can’t believe you’re making such a stupid decision. . . . He doesn’t know anything about engineering, and 99% of what he says and thinks is wrong. What the hell are you buying that garbage for?”

　　 在通知加西蘋果要收購(gòu)NeXT之后，阿梅里奧還有一個(gè)更難完成的任務(wù)：通知比爾·蓋茨。結(jié)果證明的確如此。“他勃然大怒。”阿梅里奧回憶說(shuō)。喬布斯把這單生意做得這么漂亮，蓋茨覺得很滑稽，但是可能并不驚訝。“你真的認(rèn)為史蒂夫·喬布斯有什么真家伙嗎？”蓋茨問(wèn)阿梅里奧，“我了解他的技術(shù)，那只是把Unix又熱了熱而已，而且你永遠(yuǎn)無(wú)法把它用在你的機(jī)器上。”蓋茨跟喬布斯一樣會(huì)越說(shuō)情緒越激動(dòng)，阿梅里奧回憶說(shuō)，蓋茨這樣咆哮了兩三分鐘。“難道你不明白喬布斯根本不懂技術(shù)嗎？他只是一個(gè)超級(jí)銷售員。我真無(wú)法相信你會(huì)作出這么愚蠢的決定……他根本不懂設(shè)計(jì)，他說(shuō)的想的里面99%都是錯(cuò)誤的。你買那堆垃圾到底是為了什么？”

　　Years later, when I raised it with him, Gates did not recall being that upset. The purchase of NeXT, he argued, did not really give Apple a new operating system. “Amelio paid a lot for NeXT, and let’s be frank, the NeXT OS was never really used.” Instead the purchase ended up bringing in Avie Tevanian, who could help the existing Apple operating system evolve so that it eventually incorporated the kernel of the NeXT technology. Gates knew that the deal was destined to bring Jobs back to power. “But that was a twist of fate,” he said. “What they ended up buying was a guy who most people would not have predicted would be a great CEO, because he didn’t have much experience at it, but he was a brilliant guy with great design taste and great engineering taste. He suppressed his craziness enough to get himself appointed interim CEO.”

　　 多年以后，當(dāng)我向蓋茨問(wèn)起這件事，他已經(jīng)不記得自己有那么沮喪了。他認(rèn)為收購(gòu)NeXT沒(méi)有真正給蘋果帶來(lái)一個(gè)新的操作系統(tǒng)。“阿梅里奧為NeXT支付了一大筆錢，咱們坦率說(shuō)，NeXTOS系統(tǒng)從來(lái)就沒(méi)有真正使用過(guò)。”不過(guò)，這次收購(gòu)倒是讓阿維·泰瓦尼安加盟進(jìn)來(lái)，他幫助改進(jìn)現(xiàn)有的蘋果操作系統(tǒng)，并最終融入了NeXT的核心技術(shù)。蓋茨知道這次交易注定會(huì)使喬布斯重掌大權(quán)。“但這就是命運(yùn)無(wú)常，”他說(shuō)，“他們最后買來(lái)的是一個(gè)大多數(shù)人認(rèn)為不會(huì)是個(gè)好CEO的人，因?yàn)樗麑?duì)此沒(méi)什么經(jīng)驗(yàn)，但是他是個(gè)才華橫溢的家伙，有出色的設(shè)計(jì)品位和工程品位。他適當(dāng)?shù)貕阂忠幌伦约旱寞偪瘢捅蝗蚊鼮榕R時(shí)CEO了。”

Despite what both Ellison and Gates believed, Jobs had deeply conflicted feelings about whether he wanted to return to an active role at Apple, at least while Amelio was there. A few days before the NeXT purchase was due to be announced, Amelio asked Jobs to rejoin Apple full-time and take charge of operating system development. Jobs, however, kept deflecting Amelio’s request.

雖然埃利森和蓋茨都認(rèn)為喬布斯是要奪回蘋果，但是喬布斯自己卻感覺很矛盾，他猶豫當(dāng)阿梅里奧還在的時(shí)候到底要不要回蘋果，擔(dān)任一個(gè)積極的角色。在宣布收購(gòu)NeXT幾天前，阿梅里奧邀請(qǐng)喬布斯全職加入蘋果，負(fù)責(zé)操作系統(tǒng)的開發(fā)。然而，喬布斯一直不讓阿梅里奧作出任何任命。