Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The makers of the first generation of the home computer are passing.

I saw recently that Steve Wozniak is now 75 years old. I clearly recall the first time I saw an Apple computer. It was early in 1980. I was still a senior engineering student at LSU. I was in one of those offbeat stores that were on the fringe of the campus. I had taken a bunch of computer programming courses, but never held more than a programmable calculator in my hand.

The Apple computer was not famous at the time. That came later with VisiCalc and a real reason for owning a home computer—do something useful.

Here was a computer. You could own your own computer. You could write programs on your own computer. And who would want to do that?

Anyways, Woz and Jobs helped invent the home computer. They didn’t do the background work that made that possible. HP, Intel, Atari, et al. already existed and were already making the parts that were needed for a home computer.

Jobs died a few years back. Woz appears to be in good health, but he is 75 years old. Gosh. That generation is nearing the time when they will pass. Makes me feel old. Then again, lots of things make me feel old.