The secrets of Apple, or at least of the first months of the company's existence, they started to emerge since yesterday, when I gave you some details provided by Steve Wozniak regarding the role played by the Jobs family garage in the conception of the company.
Today we continue the disclosure of Apple's secrets with an interview with Bill Fernandez, one of the first employees of the American company and one of those who seriously contributed to the development of Apple I and Apple II. Fernandez was a classmate of Steve Jobs in high school, describing the former CEO of Apple as a socially and intellectually misfit young man, but also with a penchant for technology, qualities that have made him good friends over the years.
We both also were not at all interested in the superficial bases upon which the other kids were basing their relationships, and we had no particular interest in living shallow lives to be accepted. So we didn't have many friends."
Being close friends, Jobs spent a lot of time in the home of Fernandez's parents, his mother decorating it in a meticulous style, similar to that adopted by interior designers in Japan, Bill stating that Steve Jobs then had the first signs of interest vis- I dreamed of minimalist design. Although the two were close, Fernandez was also a good friend of Steve Wozniak, he introduced the two Steves who would later co-found the Apple company.
Apple secrets and the development of Apple I and Apple II
Fernandez was one of the first Apple employees, having the role of technician for the electronics part of the first Macs, later becoming the company's first full-time employee. According to the information provided in the published interview by a American magazine, Fernandez created the first electronic schematic of the Apple II and modified the design created by Wozniak for the Apple I with the idea of standardizing it in order to mass produce the product.
"When Woz designed something, most of the design was in his head," said Fernandez. "The only documentation he needed was a few pages of notes and sketches to remind him of the overall architecture and any tricky parts. What the company needed was a complete schematic showing all the components and exactly how they were wired together."
Based on the electronic scheme created by Fernandez, it was eventually used to produce the Apple II for launch, and despite his help, Wozniak and Jobs did not offer him an advantageous position in the company or any shares after the listing on scholarship. Not having the opportunity to advance his career within Apple, something hard to imagine today for any employee, Fernandez decided to leave the company after only 18 months spent as an electrician.
Although he then left Apple, Fernandez later returned as a member of the technical team, having the opportunity to work with the team that developed the first Macintosh. The even more interesting part is that although he did not officially receive shares from Apple, Steve Wozniak offered him a part of his own shares, Chris Espinosa and Daniel Kottke having the same free share from the beloved co-founder.
Additional and more detailed details can be found in the interview published by Tech Republic.
