Edit: I should explain more of my perspective here. Woz doesn't get remotely as much recognition as he deserves for Apple's success. Jobs was the executive, his leadership style, "force of taste" and personality were able to scale to Apple as it exists today. But by itself that would have gotten him zilch in 1976. Apple exists at all because One Guy was able to put together a single box at a production price point that wouldn't be matched for 7 years. The Apple II video hardware and especially the disk controller (both implemented with just a handful of off-the-shelf logic chips, no ASICs involved) were works of true, absolute, genius. Circuit design like that probably won't ever happen again.
It's pointless to try to determine who was more important to Apple's initial success anyway. It's like trying to figure out whether the calves or the thighs contribute more to a vertical jump. Try keeping your legs perfectly straight at the knees and jumping with just the feet: You'll only get a couple inches off the floor. Now try keeping the ankle locked and jump off the heels with your thighs: You'll get a little higher. But if you take a full natural jump with your upper and lower leg, you'll jump far higher than the addition of both before. The point is, sometimes synergies just can't be broken down into obvious component forces.
To be sure, i am a bit of a woz fanboy, having lived through the 80's and poring over his work.
Though i don't begrudge Jobs the fame and fortune, i do think a lot of people overlook woz. To me, he is probably the single most influential pioneer in the history of personal computing.
Just because Steve wasn't technically proficient doesn't mean that he didn't have any good input into the design and features of the machines that Woz was building. I'm sure Steve said a lot of things, about the software especially, that helped determine the direction of the product they were building.
I have often wished that Woz continued to design products with Apple long after he left. What if he had been there with Steve all this time?
If Woz invented the personal computer for the masses (Apple I, II, and building the Macintosh before Steve Jobs joined the team), what other unknown potential hasn't happened yet?
The other interesting thing is where Steve Jobs was seen as aloof and business minded, Steve Wozniak more than made up for it with heart.
A healthy, hearty and brainy balance if I may say.
He left an indelible impression on all of us that day that is still resonating months later. Made all of us want to go build something!
But yes, it's quite terrible.
We rarely take a minute to make a stranger into a person, and Woz shows how friendship remains above all else. All we have is the memories we make and create together.
Anyone have a link to the unedited video? I'm kind of curious what they cut out.
Is there something more to this story?
[1] search for $700 on Jobs' wikipedia page
Me, I'd be pissed b/c people like Jobs always seems to think engineers are just sitting around waiting to get punked. I hate that someone has to be like Jobs to do so well. But, I also recognize he was successful and had a great vision, I won't begrudge him that.
Why can't goodness and success go together more often, without good people just looking like patsies?
Wozniak would never have become a millionaire without a salesman like Jobs.
The greatest hacker will never overcome economics.
