The appearance of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates on the same stage, which we’ve been anxiously awaiting for some time now, happened late yesterday at the D Conference in Carlsbad, CA. This event is the ultimate annual digerati place to be, and could only be pulled off by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. Photoforpost053107 It was a tough ticket to get, as usual, sold out months in advance. A press pass? Hah! I could only dream. The closest I could come was knowing someone who scored a pass — for example, my editor at Conferenza, Gary Bolles (see below for link).

But the piece de resistance of the event — the onstage appearance of tech’s biggest two names — by the accounts now posted on the All Things D site, and just published by the Wall Street Journal (may require subscription), show that it was a rather friendly, mutual-admiration-society kinda thing. Schmaltzy even? Well, yeah. Then again, I guess these guys are getting old enough now that we can’t expect fireworks all the time anymore. But, hey, it was sure some, nice friendly reminiscences! Gee, sniff, thanks for the memories, guys… 🙂 They actually come across as, well, human. Fancy that.

Here’s the highlight video, as posted at the conference site. And also check out Conferenza’s great recap.

(Photo copyright 2007, D Conference.)