I would argue that Jobs was not a “bullshit merchant”. Under his direction, Apple changed the personal computing landscape—multiple times. There was certainly an element of showmanship and marketing behind these innovations. But I wouldn’t classify them as bullshit.

When I hear bullshit merchant, I immediately think Steve Ballmer and Larry Ellison.

Steve Jobs was more of an angry asshole than Linus Torvalds. Jobs’ rants were to people’s faces rather than on mailing lists. They are both uncompromising visionaries, however.