You shouldn't really get upset at CEOs trash-talking their competitors. It's their job. In fact, it's a compliment. Trash talking something means it's registered as a threat. How many of them trash-talked OpenMoko? (Conversely, what did Jobs trash-talk? Kindle and Android mainly)
Ironically enough Gruber is a big fan of taking offense at these entirely predictable comments from CEOs. He's basically trolling himself by taking obvious talking points seriously and trolling his massive readership by continually re-broadcasting these comments that are entirely without merit or interest.
"You shouldn't really get upset at CEOs trash-talking their competitors."
There's nothing wrong with that in general, but if you have special, unique access to an important industry figure, who is not going to be around for very long because he's dying, and you're writing what ought to be the canonical biography of the man, you really shouldn't be wasting your time putting false competitor trash-talking on the page, and certainly not without adding "but in fact Gates is wrong about this" and similar qualifiers.
I'm not even a little bit upset about CEOs trash talking each other. I'm sure Gruber doesn't care either. Not sure what lead you to believe that.
Observing something happening and writing about that doesn't mean that it upsets you, or that you like it, or that you dislike it. It only means you find it interesting or telling in some way.
Ironically enough Gruber is a big fan of taking offense at these entirely predictable comments from CEOs. He's basically trolling himself by taking obvious talking points seriously and trolling his massive readership by continually re-broadcasting these comments that are entirely without merit or interest.