Steve Jobs and Warren Long are of the same era.

If Warren was not so involved in Gymnastics at Berkeley, he might have found himself at the Homebrew Computer Club, hanging out with Steve Wozniak and the other Bay Area geeks.

Stephen Gary “Woz” Wozniak (born August 11, 1950) is an American computer engineer and programmer who co-founded Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.) with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne. His inventions and machines are credited with contributing significantly to the personal computer revolution of the 1970s. Wozniak created the Apple I and Apple II computers in the mid-1970s.

I read his charmingly simplistic (2006) autobiography, iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It, transcribed by writer Gina Smith.

It’s quite a different telling of the founding of Apple than any other I’ve heard. And you really get to love Woz after hearing the tale in his own words.

Wonderful are the stories of him and Jobs being pulled into a police car in their phone phreaking youth. Of their struggles to get together any money at all to pursue their passion for their dream of the personal computer.

Woz really did personally invent the ancient ancestor of current laptops. I believe him.

Wozniak discusses his main reasons for finally writing his autobiography was to dispel several myths that surround his history, and that of Apple Computer. Including:

He developed the Apple II almost independently, not with a lot of help from Jobs

He didn’t leave Apple; he is still, in fact, officially employed by Apple

He didn’t have a “falling out” with Jobs (except right after the development of CL 9) and is still friends with him

Wozniak ends his book with advice to others, particularly the youth, on how to develop their own inventions and encourages them to ignore the mainstream and follow their own passions and ideas.

Of the many thousands of Silicon Valley missed opportunities (including some for Warren) the success of Steve, Steve and Apple I attribute to:

– the excellent partnership of Steve and Steve
– Woz getting more things right in the earliest days than anyone else

When Woz was developing those first 2 Apple computers in his spare time, he worked for HP. They did not invite him to work on the HP prototypes. Idiots.

At the same time Steve Jobs worked for Atari, who did appreciate his skill set. Years later I was to buy my first computers, Atari. I had friends that bought Apple, but I couldn’t afford them at the time.

Warren bought the other competitor – the Commodore Amiga. Actually, Warren was mainly an Atari guy too. I misremembered.

Leave a comment if you’ve any personal nostaligia to add.