Stefan Mileschin

The BBC's otherwise bottom-licking documentary on Apple Messiah Steve Jobs, Billion Dollar Hippy, tells one story where the autocrat did not come out in a particularly nice light.

In the early days Jobs and Woz were paid by Atari in 1976 to develop a video game. Jobs did not tell Steve about the financial arrangements he had made.

Woz did a six month job in four days and nights with no sleep. It was pretty rough considering he was working for HP full time. The game, "Breakout", did rather well and Jobs pocketed the huge slice of the cash earned and bought an orchard in Oregan.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Woz said that it hurts him that Jobs didn't tell him the truth about the payment. But he does not think that it matters that much.

"I had a job as an engineer at HP and Steve would have been welcome to all the money (to buy into that orchard up in Oregon)," Woz said. "It was one small negative thing that didn't hurt me and you have to weigh that against all the good in Steve Jobs."

Woz still remains convinced that Jobs' contribution to the world had been Goodness. Well, other than to the Chinese of course.

In the documentary, Woz said that Jobs had always wanted to run people and be seen as an important thinker, and developed a more conservative streak as Apple got bigger.

He said that he was too close to Jobs to see the transition. Besides, it never bothered him. Woz wanted to be an engineer and did not want to run Apple or step on other people. Jobs wanted to be a top executive.

Woz sees Jobs as being a good friend to him. It seems to us that Woz was probably a better friend to Jobs and all round nice bloke.

http://news.techeye.net/business/woz...s-a-nice-bloke