尽管两队人马互有戒心，

both teams were excited by the prospect that Microsoft would create graphical software for the Macintosh that would take personal computing into a new realm,

但想到微软为麦金塔电脑制作图形界面软件，能将个人电脑带入一个新境界，双方都非常兴奋，

and they went to dinner at a fancy restaurant to celebrate.

他们前往一家豪华餐厅吃饭庆祝。

Microsoft soon dedicated a large team to the task.

微软很快组建了一个型团队负责这个项目。

"We had more people working on the Mac than he did," Gates said.

“我们在Mac项目上的人比苹果公司的还多”，盖茨说道，

"He had about fourteen or fifteen people. We had like twenty people. We really bet our life on it."

“他们有大约十四五个人，我们有将近二十人。我们真的把命都押在这上面了。”

And even though Jobs thought that they didn't exhibit much taste, the Microsoft programmers were persistent.

尽管乔布斯觉得他们没什么品位，但微软的程序员们非常坚持不懈。

"They came out with applications that were terrible," Jobs recalled, "but they kept at it and they made them better."

“他们一开始做出的应用程序很糟糕，”乔布斯回忆说，“但是他们坚持努力，越做越好。”

乔布斯传 比尔盖茨

Eventually Jobs became so enamored of Excel that he made a secret bargain with Gates:

最后，乔布斯对Excel非常喜爱，以至于和盖茨作了个秘密协议：

If Microsoft would make Excel exclusively for the Macintosh for two years, and not make a version for IBM PCs,

如果微软在未来两年的时间里只为麦金塔做Excel，而不开发IBM个人电脑版本，

then Jobs would shut down his team working on a version of BASIC for the Macintosh

那么乔布斯就同意撤掉麦金塔电脑的BASIC团队，

and instead indefinitely license Microsoft's BASIC.

而无限期使用微软开发的BASIC程序。

Gates smartly took the deal,

盖茨精明地接受了这一提议，

which infuriated the Apple team whose project got canceled and gave Microsoft a lever in future negotiations.

而此事却激怒了苹果公司遭到解散的BASIC团队，也让微软在日后的谈判中获得了优势。

For the time being, Gates and Jobs forged a bond.

盖茨和乔布斯暂时结下了良好的关系。

That summer they went to a conference hosted by the industry analyst Ben Rosen at a Playboy Club retreat in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin,

那年夏天，他们前往威斯康星州日内瓦湖的花花公子俱乐部，参加行业析师本·罗森举办的一个会议。

where nobody knew about the graphical interfaces that Apple was developing.

当时没人知道苹果正在开发图形界面。

"Everybody was acting like the IBM PC was everything, which was nice,

“当时所有人好像都觉得IBM个人电脑就是一切。这样很好。

but Steve and I were kind of smiling that, hey, we've got something," Gates recalled.

但是史蒂夫和我就暗自得意，嘿，我们也有个好东西。”盖茨回忆道。

"And he's kind of leaking, but nobody actually caught on."

“当时他也多多少少透露出我们在做什么了，但没有人真正理解。”

Gates became a regular at Apple retreats. "I went to every luau," said Gates. "I was part of the crew."

盖茨成了苹果公司的常客，他说：“每次聚餐我都去，已经成了那儿的一分子了。”

Gates enjoyed his frequent visits to Cupertino,

盖茨很喜欢频繁地造访库比蒂诺，

where he got to watch Jobs interact erratically with his employees and display his obsessions.

在苹果公司，他有机会观察乔布斯和雇员们古怪的交流方式以及乔布斯的执著。

"Steve was in his ultimate pied piper mode,

“史蒂夫用自己超级蛊惑人心的方式，

proclaiming how the Mac will change the world and overworking people like mad,

宣称Mac将如何改变世界，疯了似的让人们超负荷工作，

with incredible tensions and complex personal relationships."

气氛异常紧张，人际关系也很复杂。”

Sometimes Jobs would begin on a high, then lapse into sharing his fears with Gates.

有时，乔布斯上一秒还很兴奋，下一秒就开始与盖茨分享自己内心的恐惧。

"We'd go down Friday night, have dinner, and Steve would just be promoting that everything is great.

“我们周五晚上出去吃饭的时候，史蒂夫还在大谈一切都很好。

Then the second day, without fail, he'd be kind of, 'Oh shit, is this thing going to sell,

第二天他就一定会说，'哦，该死，我们就要卖这玩意儿？

oh God, I have to raise the price, I'm sorry I did that to you, and my team is a bunch of idiots.'"

哦，天哪，我得提高价格，抱歉这样对你，但是，我的团队都是一群白痴。'”

Gates saw Jobs's reality distortion field at play when the Xerox Star was launched.

施乐公司推出施乐之星电脑时，盖茨见识到了乔布斯的现实扭曲力场。

At a joint team dinner one Friday night, Jobs asked Gates how many Stars had been sold thus far. Gates said six hundred.

一个周五，苹果和微软团队共进晚餐，乔布斯问盖茨，施乐之星卖了多少。盖茨回答说600台。

The next day, in front of Gates and the whole team, Jobs said that three hundred Stars had been sold,

第二天，当着盖茨和整个团队的面，乔布斯说施乐之星卖了300台。

forgetting that Gates had just told everyone it was actually six hundred.

全然忘了盖茨刚刚告诉大家施乐之星售出了600台。

"So his whole team starts looking at me like, 'Are you going to tell him that he's full of shit?'" Gates recalled.

“这时，他的团队成员们开始看着我，好像在说，'你要不要告诉乔布斯他在瞎扯淡？'”盖茨回忆，

"And in that case I didn't take the bait."

“我没蹚那浑水。”

On another occasion Jobs and his team were visiting Microsoft and having dinner at the Seattle Tennis Club.

还有一次，乔布斯及其团队成员到微软参观，并在西雅图网球俱乐部吃晚餐。

Jobs launched into a sermon about how the Macintosh and its software would be so easy to use that there would be no manuals.

乔布斯开始宣扬麦金塔机器和软件将非常易于使用，根本就用不着使用手册。

"It was like anybody who ever thought that there would be a manual for any Mac application was the greatest idiot," said Gates.

“他那样子就好像在说，如果有人想过Mac应用程序要配上使用手册，那这人一定是天大的白痴，”盖茨说，

"And we were like, 'Does he really mean it? Should we not tell him that we have people who are actually working on manuals?'"

“我们这边就在想，'他是认真的吗？是不是不该告诉他我们有人正在做使用手册？'”