Dennis Ritchie passed away 4 days ago.

[postconditional]

Who?

Dennis Ritchie is the guy that co-wrote the Unix OS and the K&R C programming language.

Huh?

iPhone? Andoid phone?

Those are cool. Hey, Steve Jobs invented the iPhone!

WRONG! You may not have a computer in front of you if it wasn't for this guy.

Here are some cause and effect charts:

File Operating Systems:

UNIX >
Linux >
Android OS

BSD Unix >
Mac OS/X >
iPhone iOS

Programming Languages:
Used to create:

K&R C >
ANSI C

• Every major OS.
• System BIOS.
• Device drivers.
• Most cutting-edge games.

C++

Objective C

• iPhone Apps.

Perl

• Web server automation.
• Server-side web apps.

Java

• Server-side web apps.
• Desktop apps.
• Android Apps.

PHP

• Server-side web apps.

ECMAScript
A.K.A. Javascript
A.K.A. Actionscript

• The Lingua Franca
  of all web-client apps.
• Also used in Flash.

C#

• Server-side web apps.
• Desktop apps.
• Silverlight apps.

Steve?
He led through business management and a design aesthetic.
He was not the primary designer and engineer of the technologies he seems to receive sole credit for.

Rant:
The world has Unix and C thanks to anti-trust regulation that prevented Bell Labs (AT&T) from imposing restrictive commercial licensing on either UNIX or C. This allowed these technologies to become world-wide standards. Software patents and patent trolls restrict the adoption of new technologies and frustrates inspired innovation.