Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Weighs In on Right-to-Repair Policy, 'It's Time To Do The Right Thing'

Alec G., Tech Times 08 July 2021, 05:07 am

Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Speaks Out In Support on Right-to-Repair Policy — (Photo : Bangyu Wang from Unsplash)

Steve Wozniak, Apple's co-founder recently spoke out about the right to repair bill and talked for 10 minutes about how important it is and how it helped mold his life.

Wozniak Goes on Cameo

Louis Rossman is known for his continued support of the right to repair legislation. He even reportedly sent a Cameo request to Wozniak, asking for his thoughts about the matter as per Apple Insider.

Although Wozniak wasn't able to talk much, he did share his thoughts on the matter.

He started by saying, "We wouldn't have had an Apple, had I not grown up in a very open technology world ... Back then, when you bought electronic things like TVs and radios, every bit of the circuits and designs were included on paper. Total open source."

He also said that growing up, everything used to be straightforward in terms of repair. People who weren't even accustomed to tech could be able to follow the designs and start from there. The Apple co-founder even said, "Everyone did this all the time back then."

Apple is 'Open Source'

Wozniak continued to say that the way Apple was created was through the inspiration and impact of the old open schematics during that time.

He said that when he started Apple, it would be difficult to "teletype for input and output." His solution was to use a TV to output signals, being able to do this because of so much tinkering during the time and applying it to his craft.

He also asked why the self-repair community is being stopped. He then sighed and said that Apple continued to ship out the full schematics and it was the only source of profit for Apple for its first decade.

Since Apple II was released, it has sold over six million units.

Wozniak Got Emotional in Cameo

Starting on his Cameo video, Wozniak felt emotional talking about the right to repair and that he is always supportive of the thought, according to 9to5Mac.

He reminisced on his earlier childhood regarding how technology back then all came by instructions by the manufacturer. He went on to say that it had a big impact on how he was curious about tinkering growing up to what he has built to this day.

Tinkering, utilizing, fixing, or improving devices back then was common, and that everyone could do it if they took the time to read the instructions.

People could even go to grocery stores to look for replacement parts to fix the affected device.

Wozniak talked about how he became a TV engineer and Design engineer to create his very own PC. He even talked about how he was able to design the game "Breakout" for Atari. He said he wasn't restricted to anything from building his computer and showing it to the world.

Being able to tinker with things gives people joy and that they could show it off to others, which is "very motivating to creative minds," says Wozniak.

He ended his Cameo by telling his audience that it's time to do the right things, as he talked about the right to repair legislation.