“Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple Computer with Steve Jobs in 1976, was in Seattle Thursday to speak to a University of Washington class. His goddaughter, Julie Roebuck, is a UW student and invited him to the campus. Wozniak, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, sat down afterward for an interview with The Seattle Times,” Kim Peterson writes for The Seattle Times.
Some excerpts:
Q: What do you think about Boot Camp, which lets you run Windows on a Mac?
Woz: I don’t think anything of it at all. You know, people say a bunch of PC people will now buy Macs. No. What I really want is just a window that I can go back and forth instantly. I don’t have to reboot. I go to Macintosh, I go to the PC, I go to Macintosh, so right now I use “Virtual PC.” It’s a program on the Mac that emulates a PC but it’s slow.
Q: What can we expect from the book [you have coming out soon]?
Woz: You can expect stories about what really happened, how things were really done, key elements of it. I was a little disappointed — Steve Jobs had indicated he’d write a forward [sic]. But he’d never written a forward [sic] before and I said, “Just write what we were like back then.” We sent him the book and he said, “Oh, I saw some excerpts, and I’m going to decline writing the forward [sic].” I don’t know why because I’m nice to him, so there must have been something he didn’t like.
Q: Are you still close friends?
Woz: Not close friends. Even when Apple really got started we weren’t close friends because he had a different motivation in the company, which was to run a company, and mine was just to be a top engineer that did clever, clever projects. So we almost never saw each other in the company.
More in the full Q & A here.
[UPDATE: 4:28pm EDT: Fixed headline and marked incorrect usage of “forward.” Thanks “essefgy.”]
MacDailyNews Take: Unsurprising. What would be surprising is if Jobs had accepted and was busily typing away right now. We don’t think Steve Jobs likes his name to be anywhere near, much less in, books that he doesn’t completely control.
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Related articles:
Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak autobiography ‘I, Woz’ coming this fall – April 11, 2006
Microsoft ‘pleased’ with Apple’s Boot Camp; Woz says ‘It’s a great thing for Apple’ – April 06, 2006
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Wozgate erupts – March 03, 2006
That’s too bad… just write a forward to Woz… that’s all he’s asking.
I wouldn’t think that would be too much trouble for the friend who did most of the engineering to get Apple off the ground 30 years ago.
Flame!
OMG! Steve Jobs is teh evil!
Yep, he’s a dick, like we didn’t know that already.
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Shouldn’t that be “Foreword”?
I’m looking forward to this book. Don’t forget when Steve J scammed Woz with the video game. I wonder if that’s in the book.
I really do think both Steves are very different than they were when they started Apple 30 years ago – writing about what they “were like back then” must seem like a world away.
Very few people would write a forward for a book on the basis that the author is “nice to him”. Sure they have a history, but their friendship has obviously perished. Woz probably talks about reasons he left Apple, where he probably says a few negative things about Steve. And Steve’s RDF simply tells him that Woz is flat out lying, therefore Woz is a jerk, therefore Woz gets no forward.
Things change between people all the time. I don’t blame Steve.
I’m not a Woz hater by any means, but I’m not a “fan” either. His involvement in the old Apple was amazing and deserves credit, but doesn’t anyone else think that constantly reliving “the old times” has had its time?
I just recently listened to a podcast– name forgotten– where a bunch of Apple old timers spoke and the interviewer spoke with an air of adulation that was nice, but after a while, old.
It’s the permanent “Hey, remember when…?”
I don’t know why Steve didn’t write the foreward, but my guess is that while Steve remains in the moment, some of the book’s selective remembering rubs the wrong way.
Maybe he’ll just get Bill Gates to write it. Oh wouldn’t that be a slap in SJ’s face?
Maybe Steve is too busy writing response letters to third-graders?
Oops. My bad.
So let me get this straight: Woz “asked” Steve to write a forward. Steve read a copy of the book. Steve “declined” to write the forward.
Why do people immediately assume that a request should always be granted. That’s all it is…a request that was turned down. End of story.
Oh, I’ve got a four-letter word for you.
Why can’t we all just get along?
What we need is a reality series: Jobs on Jobs.
Jobs is being a prick. Don’t get me wrong, I love Apple and Jobs but let’s face it… not writing the foreword is a prickish. He’ll allow Windows XP on Apple hardware but won’t write a few words for the Woz.
*prickish move
The fact that Steve Wozniak has to air his dirty laundry and personal disagreements over the foreword makes him look like a sour little kid. He should just keep that crap between himself and Steve Jobs. Judging by Woz’s reaction and handling, I’d say Jobs did the right thing. Why associate yourself with someone who airs every little disagreement between you in public?
Poor form Woz. I’m getting kind of tired of hearing from this guy, he never seems to say anything terribly insightful to say. He’s a has-been if ever there was one–forever to be known as ‘the other Steve that co-founded Apple computer’.
Woz is a gentleman. Jobs isn’t – and that’s why Apple is insanely great.
If there was a musical named The Wizard named Woz, what Apple vets would be the lion, the tin man, dorothy and toto? Who would be the witch of the East? Maybe Bill Gates?
“I’ll get you my pretty. And your system software too. Heeehehehehehe.”
Not surprising. Woz is currently associated with Gil Amelio and Ellen Hancock, two people not on SJ’s invite list. Other than the picture of the two of them on the screen after Macworld not much going on between the two.
MW: Analysis. Not much needed on this one.
I thought that MDN recently posted another story where they interviewed Woz, and he said that Steve J. is always nice to him, invites him to special events, etc. Weird stuff….
Rasterbator,
Tin Man – Steve Jobs. Right or wrong – we certainly know who doesn’t have a heart.
it’s amazing how much apple nostalgia people have…i’m bored with it personally. woz’s time passed 20 years ago. what’s with the fascination with him? what has he done for me lately?
it’s amazing how much speculation there is around apple…i’m bored with that, too. people must be grasping at straws if they’re speculating on new products and loving the past of a *company*.
now i love apple products, and i love using them, but i have my own head on my shoulders.
in sum, what has woz done for me *lately*?
Jobs is Jobs and Woz is Woz and never the twain shall meet.
Way back in time Jobs needed dough and proceeded then, to cheat
Woz out of quite a bit of cash, when cash was all they had
When Woz found out, too late, he left, and though wiser, he was sad.
So now this book that Woz has wrote is finished, and awaits
A simple short acknowledgment from Jobs – instead, he shakes
A finger (not the middle) right at Woz, declaring, “NO.
I changed my mind. Your book won’t do. I will not write. Now go.”
Perhaps SJ is a bit miffed over the recent Woz-gate incident. Woz being in bed with Gil Amelio (the Apple CEO SJ outted) is also a bad kharma kind of thing.