Steve Wozniak

Steve Wozniak, whose relationship with Jobs grew chilly in later years, told Bloomberg TV he was a “little bit shocked at first,” but added he wouldn’t go into “total grief” because Jobs has taken time off before. He also graciously said Jobs has “become the most important person in the world” and hopes Jobs has time for his own life.

Walt Mossberg is the premier gadget critic and has spent much of his career testing and reviewing Jobs’ personal creations for Apple. He may know Jobs better than any journalist. Mossberg discusses how Jobs popularized personal computing and returned from exile to lead Apple to glory with the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Google Senior Vice President of Social Vic Gundotra told this great little story of how Jobs called him to discuss a Google logo design change on the iPhone. On Google+, naturally, it’s short and sweet.

On The Next Web, pundit/blogger Robert Scoble discusses how his love affair with Apple products began, 34 years ago: “For understanding just why you’ve got to go back through my entire life. When I was in Junior High, as a 12-year-old, I helped unbox the first Apple IIs that Hyde Jr. High in Cupertino bought. Seeing that green screen, cassette tape drive, and tan plastic case with the pop-off lid started a relationship with Apple that would ebb and flow for the next 34 years.”

Blogger Om Malik, who suffered a heart attack in 2007 that kept him from his work, wrote: “It is incredibly hard for me to write right now. To me, like many of you, it is an incredibly emotional moment. I cannot look at Twitter, and through the mist in my eyes, I am having a tough time focusing on the screen of this computer. I cannot hear the sounds of the street or the ring of my phone. The second hand on my watch moves slowly, ever so slowly. I want to wake up and find it was all a nightmare.”

Robert X. Cringely, the journalist and author, had his own interesting twist on the story: “Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Steve Jobs was changed from March 6, 2012 to November 21, 2011. This shocked me, because the last I read Isaacson was still writing his book, which was due with the publisher, Simon & Schuster, in September. Huge biographies aren’t finished early or rushed to completion. Figuring the book will still be finished in September, that it will take a month to print and ship the books, this means that the publisher’s part of this process-the copy editing, designing, formatting, building indexes and so forth-is being reduced from a normal minimum of at least six months to less than six weeks. It makes business sense to do this, sure, but I don’t think that’s enough: some external force is pushing the deadline. I suspect that force accelerating the publication may be Steve Jobs.”

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff said on Twitter: “We keep hearing this end of an era talk, but we’re not buying it. Apple is in good shape with Cook, though Jobs’ day-to-day presence will be missed.”

About Jobs’ departure, New York Times media critic David Carr tweeted a similar sentiment: “Things just got a lot less interesting.” Again, we respectfully disagree: We know what Apple can do with Jobs in front. It will be fascinating to see what the company can do with him simply bending Cook’s ear.

Venture Capitalist Bill Gurley tweeted something we do agree with: “Steve Jobs’ run at Apple is likely the very best CEO execution we will see in our lifetime. Amazing.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger kindly chipped in: “Steve Jobs is one of California’s greatest innovators. Very few achieved his impact over the last 50 years and probably the next 100 years.” Well said!