And don’t forget Steve Wozniak!

Wozniak (left) and Jobs

Let’s not forget the other half of the original Apple team, Steve Wozniak (OK, and with Ronald Wayne). Woz was the real hardware guy of the two, was older and was working at HP at the time they came together and decided to market a computer for people who didn’t want to build it themselves. (There were “personal” computers, but you had to be able to assemble it yourself and program it. Not very friendly.)

Actually, the Apple I didn’t do that very well. The user had to provide a case, a power supply, a display, and a keyboard – the computer was basically a circuit board. The Apple II and its descendants, the II+, IIc, and IIe, and finally IIGS, were much more user-friendly and were true “personal” computers.

Woz worked on and off for Apple until 1987, but his real design days were in the development of the Apple I and II in the very early days of the company. He’s been involved in a lot of business ventures since then and is active in providing computers for schools.