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Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, two of the greatest rivals in technology, made a rare joint appearance last night, but surprised followers of their bitter saga by showering each other with praise.

“What Steve has done is quite phenomenal,” Mr Gates said. “The way he does things is just different. It’s magical.”

Mr Jobs was quick to return the compliment. “Bill built the first software company in the industry,” he said. “Bill focused on software before anyone.”

Of Microsoft, regarded by many Apple supporters as the arch-enemy, he said: “They learned how to partner with people really well, and I think if Apple could have had a little more of that in its DNA, it would have served it extremely well.”

It used to be all so different. Mr Gates once accused the Apple boss of achieving his success “by saying how crummy everyone else is”. In return, Mr Jobs said that Microsoft made “really third-rate products” and suggested that Mr Gates might be a broader person “if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.”

Last night, there was barely a word of disagreement between them. When asked by Kara Swisher, The Wall Street Journal’s technology reporter, what had been the greatest misunderstanding about their relationship, Mr Jobs joked: “We’ve kept our marriage secret for over a decade now.”

Mr Gates suggested that it had been a happy marriage. “Neither of us have anything to complain about, in general,” he said. “It’s been fun to work together.”

The two companies have grown up alongside each other, and while Microsoft has always been the dominant rival, Apple embedded itself in the public consciousness with its hugely successful iPod and stylish home computers.

Mr Jobs and his friend Steve Wozniak founded Apple in 1976, five years before IBM jumped into the personal computer market. He left Apple in 1985 following a struggle with the company’s board but made a triumphant return in 1997 when Apple was struggling to survive.

Mr Gates dropped out of Harvard University in 1975 to found Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen and turned the company into the world’s largest software maker. Its Windows operating system and Office software suite dominates both the corporate and consumer market.

Mr Gates has now stepped back from day-to-day running of the company, and devotes more of his time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which was set up in 2000 and is now the world’s largest philanthropic foundation. It gives the majority of its grants in the areas of world health, global development and education.

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