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?”

　　 在通知加西苹果要收购NeXT之后，阿梅里奥还有一个更难完成的任务：通知比尔·盖茨。结果证明的确如此。“他勃然大怒。”阿梅里奥回忆说。乔布斯把这单生意做得这么漂亮，盖茨觉得很滑稽，但是可能并不惊讶。“你真的认为史蒂夫·乔布斯有什么真家伙吗？”盖茨问阿梅里奥，“我了解他的技术，那只是把Unix又热了热而已，而且你永远无法把它用在你的机器上。”盖茨跟乔布斯一样会越说情绪越激动，阿梅里奥回忆说，盖茨这样咆哮了两三分钟。“难道你不明白乔布斯根本不懂技术吗？他只是一个超级销售员。我真无法相信你会作出这么愚蠢的决定……他根本不懂设计，他说的想的里面99%都是错误的。你买那堆垃圾到底是为了什么？”

　　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，当我向盖茨问起这件事，他已经不记得自己有那么沮丧了。他认为收购NeXT没有真正给苹果带来一个新的操作系统。“阿梅里奥为NeXT支付了一大笔钱，咱们坦率说，NeXTOS系统从来就没有真正使用过。”不过，这次收购倒是让阿维·泰瓦尼安加盟进来，他帮助改进现有的苹果操作系统，并最终融入了NeXT的核心技术。盖茨知道这次交易注定会使乔布斯重掌大权。“但这就是命运无常，”他说，“他们最后买来的是一个大多数人认为不会是个好CEO的人，因为他对此没什么经验，但是他是个才华横溢的家伙，有出色的设计品位和工程品位。他适当地压抑一下自己的疯狂，就被任命为临时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.

虽然埃利森和盖茨都认为乔布斯是要夺回苹果，但是乔布斯自己却感觉很矛盾，他犹豫当阿梅里奧还在的时候到底要不要回苹果，担任一个积极的角色。在宣布收购NeXT几天前，阿梅里奥邀请乔布斯全职加入苹果，负责操作系统的开发。然而，乔布斯一直不让阿梅里奥作出任何任命。