Wozniak ‘If I ran Apple, I’d be a little more friendly’

Apple co founder Steve Wozniak spoke to LosGatosPatch yesterday and it was a revealing interview. Wozniak and Jobs started Apple from lowly beginnings, with Jobs taking it into the modern day, as one of the most valuable companies in the world.

In the interview he says that Jobs wasn't in the same year as himself, being 4 years behind. A fact often misquoted in books and online literature. He explains that neither Jobs or himself had any money and that getting parts to build one was not easy.

“I had no money. Steve and I both had no money and I could never get the parts to build one. Well, I had a summer job earning money for my third year of college and it turned into a year-long job to earn a lot of money.

And while there, it eventually got me the parts to build a computer of my own design. And while building it, down the street in Sunnyvale, [there was] this friend. We were in his garage working on it, he said there’s this guy you should meet, Steve Jobs, because he knows the digital electronics, too.

Steve knew how to, you know, put circuits together and look at diagrams and connect wires and construct devices that would have flashing numbers for things like frequency detections that would correspond to the tone of a guitar or something like that.”

When asked about the modern day, he said that Jobs leaving the company wouldn't really have any effect on the company, short term anyway. He also spoke about Steve Jobs, and his legacy.

“I think Steve Jobs will be recognized as the great technology hero, visionary…in my own opinion, it was that he was able to take a company that had the benefits of Apple, which is a large number of people that used a lot of their products, except to take that and basically run a business in a way that would not lose money, that would have great exciting products, that would inspire the world and make people feel differently about technology.”

Wozniak was asked about how he would run Apple if he was given the opportunity. He said “I’d be a little more friendly and open to the other communities. Make the excellent products, but don’t stop young technical people from being able to quickly pick it up and write a program on it like a real computer.

So in other words, I grew up as a real technical person and loved to be able to use computers and write programs and do things with devices even—whether they were intended to or not—taken beyond their original intent.

So Apple's a little closed that way. I would put it in not in a way that it bothers anybody, or is a threat to security or a threat to the device working, or that they'd ever even see it. But [so] somebody could just pick it up and write a program in a simple language.

Apple controls that very tightly, you know partly to ensure that Apple then doesn't have…to become like trapped supporting that language forever. Apple doesn't want to be in that position. It lets Apple move more freely and easily, but it leaves us little innovators, young innovators, out of the picture.

I think I'd try to be more open to things like letting you have your iTunes library and easily share it with other music programs..that's the monopoly approach. And you know, I just don't like it.”

You can read the full interview over here.

Kitguru says: Will Wozniak ever get into a controlling position within Apple? We doubt it.

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