Some have suggested we observe Bastille Day by giving a shoutout to local Frenchepreneur Loic Le Meur. Sorry, Loic, but we still think you're a guy from Kentucky with a convincingly fake accent. Instead, we're saluting Jean-Louis Gassé. I know what the non-olds among the audience are thinking right now: Qui? Gassé was a quote-slinging controversialist who famously sparred with Steve Jobs at Apple, wore an earring and a leather jacket, and talked to Wired about his nipples. Like Jobs, he left Apple to launch a hardware startup that turned into a software startup, Be Inc.

Apple almost bought Be instead of Jobs's Next — and the history of the Valley would have been quite different had that happened. Instead, Gassé's Be failed, and he disappeared into a sinecure VC job at one of Be's investors. He even stopped blogging two years ago. Where are you now, Jean-Louis? Jobs may talk about thinking different, but you were the one who always made us say, "Vive la différence!"