Well, one difference I see is he died back in 1994, which is before even Windows 95 took off along with the Internet, though the "Internet" technically started going live in 1991, it would be many years before it became a powerful communication medium to compete with say the TV, etc. Affordable desktops had to happen along with 56 kbps modems.
Ritchie and Jobs on the other hand both died in 2011, in a digital age of affordable high-speed broadband, powerful desktops and WiFi tablets/phones everywhere for average people, etc. and where the Internet has practically replaced most communication methods. I learned about Jobs death either from Facebook trending news feeds, or from whatever other news websites I might visit. So, there certainly was a lot more potential for Ritchie to get more life accomplishment respects in 2011 and it getting noticed versus Gary Kildall of course, and to some extent, this meme is accomplishing that, but yeah... The contrast here between those 2 is kind of telling.
