Associated with the large heat conduction in the solar wind is a skewing of the ion and electron distribution functions. It is shown that this collisional skewing of the electron distribution function can linearly excite collisionless ion‐acoustic, electrostatic ion cyclotron, magnetoacoustic, and ion cyclotron waves in the steady‐state solar wind even though the net equilibrium current parallel to B is zero. The initial growth rates for these unstable waves are derived, and the effectiveness of the wave‐particle interactions in heating the ions and in altering the thermal and electrical conductivities is disc