I, Woz

theodp writes "In a Q&A session, Steve Wozniak discusses his forthcoming autobiography, how HP not only passed on his Apple design but also nixed his pleas to work on an HP computer, and the perks of being an Apple co-founder - free 65W AC adapters!"

Comments

Re:Limitations of autobiographies

[Moby Cock]

He wasn't exactly treated fairly by Jobs and the company in its fledgling days

That is the long standing rumour. As you say, it'll be interesting to see if this is actually the case. Hopefully he'll discuss whether his treatment (good or bad) was warranted in the context of trying to set up a big corporation. It is always advisable to treat people decently, but there are times when circumstance dictate ruthlessness.

I'm looking forward to reading Woz's take on it all.

Re:Woz and Jobs

[MosesJones]

With only two differences

1) Paul Allen doesn't hold a technical candle to Woz
2) Bill Gates doesn't hold a visionary candle to Jobs

Without Jobs there would be no Apple, Woz would have stuck at HP and written printer drivers.

friends

[l3v1]

That's actually one of the nicest things Steve does for me: He makes sure I am always invited to the VIP guest area for the product rollouts. I appreciate that more than I can ever say.

I can appreciate one who knows what's most important in life, and one of those things is not forgetting who your friends are, and sticking by them all along. Even if it's just small things, which is the job of some secretary.

Actually Woz was the more important Steve ...

[AHumbleOpinion]

Actually Woz was the more important Steve, the one people liked, the engineer rather than the salesman, the one who was not under the delusion that he could run a corporation, the one who decided not to make employees suffer under decades of on-the-job training while he developed the skills, the one who decided to do something more important, the one who was always welcome at Apple, the one person "at" Apple who doesn't need to care what Jobs thinks ...

Re:Actually Woz was the more important Steve ...

[Admiral Ag]

It's unfair for people to slag off Jobs. Sure Woz is the more personally appealing of the two, and sure, he appeals more to the average /. reader, since he's the engineer type, but Jobs has done far more for the company, and is in many ways the more remarkable person.

Jobs is extremely good at getting the right people to do the right thing, and getting them to do it as best as they can. Like many bosses he's by all accounts somewhat of an asshole, but I guess most people in his position are a bit like that. He is the person who should take most of the credit for saving Apple.

Jobs' personal stamp is all over everything that Apple makes, particularly its consumer level stuff. It seems to me that some people here just don't get it. There's an old interview with Jobs floating around on the net where he accuses Microsoft of having no taste. That's sort of the point with Apple: it's not enough just to make stuff that works, it always has to be done with one eye on the aesthetics of the computer experience. Apple under Jobs has characteristically produced machines and software with a simplistic Zen-like design that attempt to be works of art (and in some cases arguably succeed). If you are the sort of person who only cares about what is quantifiable in technical terms, then you aren't going to really get Apple's way of doing things. That's why people like the iPod... it's just a cool piece of kit. Comparing it with other players on technical grounds alone misses the point. It's rivals are almost uniformly hideous and lack any sense of proportion or beauty.

I guess if you wanted to sum it up, Apple's philosophy is that a computer (or whatever they are flogging this week) should be an organic whole, not merely a prettified piece of technical equipment. The Apple aesthetic is a fundamental part of the user experience, and one which attracts a following. That's Jobs' doing for the most part.

If you don't like that sort of stuff, then fair enough, but to me it seems that it is akin to the difference between someone who is incredibly technically proficient with the guitar, but has no real sense of what makes good music, and someone who has both.

Re:Woz and Jobs

[ucblockhead]

Without Jobs there would be no Apple,

That's like saying "without your left leg, you couldn't walk".

I disagree

[jocknerd]

Woz, was and is a brilliant engineer. But there are hundreds like him. But there aren't many like Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs IS Apple. Look what they did without him. 12 years of absolutely nothing. Steve Jobs launched the Macintosh. Then he started NeXT which was a decade ahead of its time. Then he brought Apple back from near extinction. Can you think of another corporation that can yield such influence over an industry while having less than 10% market share? Oh, and somewhere in his spare time, he bought a little animation studio and turned it into a force.

Re:Unquestionably, "I, Woz" is the best title ever

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps he is paying homage to another science guy.

Isaac Asimov, who wrote a book intitled "I, Robot" and then later wrote an autobiography "I, Asimov"

Re:Woz and Jobs

[Yer Mom]

Both Gates & Jobs are grand bullshit artists

Tsk, tsk. We Apple users pronounce it "reality distortion field".

Re:From the article

[Anonymous Coward]

"...cooler than when Howard Stern called for his friend who couldn't speak English. Both guys, BTW, were really really nice...!

Well, with Stern allegedly scoring highly for "antisocial personality disorder" on DSM-IV (ie. an old skool psychopath), it's not surprising that he can turn on the ol' superficial charm at the drop of a hat. Similarly, a lot of high-level executives score very highly on the same scale

Just don't get between either of 'em and their goals: Then, you won't be a fellow human being, just a puppet, a cipher, a disposable and infuriating obstacle...