Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Beginnings of Apple Computer

Posted by Soulskill on from the as-yet-unripe dept.

John Burek points out an article written by Stan Veit, former editor-in-chief of Computer Shopper magazine, and one of the first retailers to deal with the fledgling Apple Computer in the late 1970s. Veit describes his introduction to the Apple I and his early interactions with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak as they developed their early models. Quoting: "After Woz hooked his haywire rig up to the living-room TV, he turned it on, and there on the screen I saw a crude Breakout game in full color! Now I was really amazed. This was much better than the crude color graphics from the Cromemco Dazzler. ... 'How do you like that?' said Jobs, smiling. 'We're going to dump the Apple I and only work on the Apple II.' 'Steve,' I said, 'if you do that you will never sell another computer. You promised BASIC for the Apple I, and most dealers haven't sold the boards they bought from you. If you come out with an improved Model II they will be stuck. Put it on the back burner until you deliver on your promises.'"

7 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting about Wozniak by Samschnooks · · Score: 5, Insightful
    FTFA:

    When Apple went public, Jobs would not give stock to several employees who made the Apple possible. My son gave them stock out of his allotment, or they would have never benefited from the long hours and devotion they put in to start the company. If you had given Jobs the money, he would have found a way to keep you from getting the stock.

    I guess Wozniak is a class act. And as far as Jobs is concerned, well; I guess he and Gates are similar people. Actually, I don't think I've heard of Gates screwing employees out of stock.

    1. Re:Interesting about Wozniak by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My impression of Woz is that what he is at heart is an engineer. He wants to make stuff, and make stuff work, and make stuff do really nifty things, and create jokes and pranks. I think in his mind being rich is nice and all, but there are much more important things to worry about, like helping other people out and teaching kids about technology.

      Hence his gift of stock to other employees: he has plenty for himself, so he decided to do the decent thing and help out some other folks he knew.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
  2. Re:Figures. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can't imagine that Woz isn't happy. He has money, time to play, time to spend time on whatever he wants without deadlines, and even a fan following.

    Jobs clear gave and continues to give Apple a customer-focused vision - something that almost every other company fails at - to the level of a fault.

    It is one thing to design an awesome computer - its another to take one that propels a multi-billion dollar industry forward.

  3. Re:Figures. by Concerned+Onlooker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "It is one thing to design an awesome computer - its another to take one that propels a multi-billion dollar industry forward."

    Apparently it always takes a raving ego maniac to do it, however. And I'm not just talking about Steve Jobs. The world is run by the nearly and the wholly sociopathic. One could argue that those types drive progress, but there is plenty of wreckage left in their wakes. And in the end it might be that some people who got screwed over by people like Jobs refused to see him--and others like him--for what he was simply because they got dollar signs in their eyes.

    --
    http://www.rootstrikers.org/
  4. An historic moment... by m.ducharme · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "'...You promised BASIC for the Apple I, and most dealers haven't sold the boards they bought from you. If you come out with an improved Model II they will be stuck. Put it on the back burner until you deliver on your promises.'"

    And lo, the hardware/software upgrade cycle was born.

    --
    Rule of Slashdot #0: You and people like you are not representative of the larger population. - A.C.
  5. Re:I liked my old Apple II..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The nice thing about their path is that they're not afraid to cut off backwards compatibility. That's pretty much the biggest flaw with Windows. A lot of the security issues in Vista today are there because drivers used those holes to work. People still use hardware that uses those broken drivers, and the companies who released the products stopped supporting them years ago.

    Microsoft knows they can't go "We no longer support anything from before Windows 2000" because EVERYONE will be pissed. From corporate accounts who can't use their ancient printers to Joe Sixpack who has a scanner from 1992.

  6. deliver on your promises? by SteveWoz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Apple I and II BASIC were basically the same thing and the project was never put on hold. The Apple II had very little extra code, only for handling character I/O differently, some color graphics commands that I added, and the slot-directed character I/O commands (PR #6). If there was some trying to back out of implementing this BASIC on the Apple I, it was never communicated to me. I never spoke to Stan Veit myself about this.

    In fact, I definitely had the completed Apple I BASIC running Star Trek on a dozen Apple I's in a store in Orange County, long before BASIC was adapted for the Apple II.

    Bottom line is...it's news to me although it makes some sense (the push to support the Apple I).

    --
    OK a new size TV