Gates and Jobs to Share the Stage at D

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates remind me of a pair of grade-school buddies. Half the time they're working together on projects, and the other half they're making fun of each other's taste in cartoons. The people who use their products can sometimes seem like chalk and cheese, with Windows users calling Mac users technology know-nothings and Mac users calling Windows users mindless drones -- or some variation on those themes.

Which is why it should be interesting to see the two of them sharing the stage to talk about the history of the modern computing era at the Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital Conference in San Diego at the end of May. Because once you cut through all the Apple/Microsoft partisanship, the fact remains they've both witnessed and shaped the transformation of our digital world for over 20 years in ways beyond our mere mortals.

Aside from a 1991 cover photo for Fortune, I can't think of another time I've seen the two together in the same room in public. (Gates's ominous video appearance at MacWorld in 1997 doesn't count. Neither do TV movies.) So it should be interesting to see how their perspectives have changed, if at all, as they bounce off each other.

(And although I'm platform-agnostic, I'd pay good money to see Jobs ask Gates, "So, Bill, sell those one million Zunes yet?" Yes, it's childish. Sue me.)