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Early Apple Employees Talk Memories of Steve Jobs, Thoughts On New Movie

Posted by Soulskill on from the i-never-realized-steve-jobs-was-a-transformer dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes "Daniel Kottke and Bill Fernandez had front-row seats to the birth of the personal computing industry, as well as the most valuable technology company in the world. Both served as employees of Apple Computer in its earliest days: Kottke working with the hardware, Fernandez developing the user interfaces. Both have some strong opinions about the new feature film Jobs, which dramatizes the personal and professional escapades of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and his more technically inclined partner, Steve Wozniak. Kottke consulted on early versions of the script, attended the movie's premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in February, and is currently planning to see it again shortly after its release on August 16. Fernandez, on the other hand, hasn't seen it and doesn't intend to, because he considers it a work of fiction and thinks it will upset him. In this lengthy interview with Slashdot, both attempted to distinguish the facts and longstanding geek legends from the instances of pure creative license exercised by the filmmakers."

8 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. Hey, remember when Steve used to screw us over? by TWiTfan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Oh, those were the days. We used to laugh, and then he would deny us stock options, and then we would go to a bar and drink, and then he would curse at us and fire us. Oh man, were those great times!

    --
    The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
    1. Re:Hey, remember when Steve used to screw us over? by TWiTfan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My personal favorite Steve Jobs "asshole moment" was when he came back to the company in the 90's. One of his first acts as CEO was to end all of Apple's charitable giving programs. Such a sweet fella. I think that's even better than when he used to regularly park his Porsche in handicapped spots (starting back in the 80's, long before he was sick, mind you).

      --
      The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
    2. Re:Hey, remember when Steve used to screw us over? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't have any major problems with Jobs removing the program when the company was struggling. I have a problem with him not reinstating it when Apple got back to sound financial footing.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  2. Film casts Woz in bad light. by nitehawk214 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The one true geek character in the entire Apple saga. Well that is enough for me to not bother with it.

    --
    I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  3. A legend? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Informative

    Woz is the legend. Jobs was the PR machine.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:A legend? by orthancstone · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's somewhat disingenuous. Steve had great ideas and vision, but more importantly he knew how to get people to buy into it. You can downplay that as "PR" all you want, but strong leadership involves convincing others to collaborate on a common set of goals.

  4. Re:Link to film by deKernel · · Score: 4, Informative

    Uhm, I hate to break the news to you, but the name of the movie was "Jobs" and not "Jobs & Woz".

  5. A partnership by sjbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hate to break it to you, but without Woz it is highly likely that nobody would even have heard of Jobs.

    And without Jobs it's pretty unlikely most of us would have heard of Woz. It was a partnership and while it lasted a pretty remarkable one. Woz was a technical genius and Jobs was a sales/design genius. You need both to be successful, especially in a startup.