Both of these guys arguably had and continue to have a huge influence on the industry and thus society in general.

If you take a man and blindfold him and put him on an airplane to any random city in the world, and then blindly send him to any business office in that city, there's probably a greater than 90% chance that the information systems that run that business are Microsoft based.

As the leader of Microsoft since inception, the products produced by his company have daily impact on the most people and businesses worldwide, everyday.

For that reason, I place Bill Gates ahead of Steve Jobs.