Fire in the Valley: The Birth and Death of the Personal Computer

This is a robust look at the rise of the personal computing phenomenon, told from the perspective of those who watched the industry explode from a spark to a conflagration within a couple of decades.Rather than taking a pure chronological approach, the narrative groups the material into themes like hardware development, evolving operating systems, user reactions, investor relations, business adoption, the growth of multimedia, corporate rises and falls, and the like. While this occasionally caused some timeline confusion (okay, are we still in the 90s? Back to the 70s?) it made the trends of history easier to follow and understand.This is the third edition of this fantastic work, and the authors do a credible job of describing today's melding of personal computing into the more intuitive world of personal devices (phones) and a more immersive experience with the Internet. Curiously, the authors obliquely refer to this as the "fall" of personal computing, where I see if as more of an evolutionary step in our use of the technology.I highly recommend this work to anyone who ever looked past the edges of the "C:/" prompt or the Start Button and wondered how this all really worked, and WHY computers do what they do. And for younger readers who have never known a moment without a digital connection at their side, this is a truly illuminating glimpse into the vision of those who gave us that world.

Having lived through the PC revolution, I greatly enjoyed the little known back stories about the people and machines they built. An example: At one point, the creator of the Altair, the first real "home computer", decided to give Bill Gates another call about using his BASIC computer language. The phone was answered by a private residence, the person had never heard of BASIC. Apparently someone wrote the phone number down wrong. For want of a nail ...

The third edition is a much shorter book in the second edition, which leads me to believe that the second edition has much richer content. 50 pages at least deleted? In the photo, the second edition is on top, the third edition is on the bottom. You decide.

At one point My Commodore 64 was the best selling computer? Was tired of books where only the winners got to finish the story of the PC. Swaine digs deep and mentions all the players and how the whole PC history REALLY played out. Great read of PC history buffs.

After reading the book, I feel like I have completed a college course I've long wanted to take. I appreciate the names, the general history, the telling the technical story of the development of the smart-machine itself, the demonstration in the telling of how to screw up a business and how not to screw it up--really, I appreciate all the information this book has given me. It must have taken forever to write. What an incredible effort. You definitely get your money's worth!

This book was the source material for the Pirates of Silicon Valley movie. It's been updated since then. It's a great, easy, well-written read. If you have any interest in the birth of Silicon Valley, I highly recommend it.

Having worked I Silicon Valley at that time for one of the companies in the book I found it an extremely accurate and exciting read.

Great computer history book. I read original version in early 80s while in college. I still remember the Altair (bought the assembly manual but not the kit) and watched the revolution develop through the 70s.

Very american centric nothing on uk industry

Great book.

Das Buch ist sehr spannend geschrieben und gerade für uns hier in Deutschland, die das alles nur aus der zweiten oder dritten Reihe mitbekommen haben. Teilweise sind leider auch sehr langatmige Passagen enthalten, die wohl auch nur deshalb entstanden sind, weil das entsprechende Material vorhanden war. Mir persönlich fehlt allerdings die Erwähnung der Pioniere in den Bell Laboratories Kerninham, Richie, Thompson, die auf die Software Entwicklung der folgenden Jahre gewaltigen Einfluss gehabt haben. Leider ist auch der Bereich NeXt ziemlich kurz gekommen. es ist aber meines Wissens nach die vollständigste Dokumentation dieser Jahre.

Gibt einen umfassenden Überblick über die Vor- & Frühgeschichte der "Personal Computers" und eine Entwicklungsgeschichte der Firmen & Plattformen, die wir heute täglich benutzen und/oder benutzen müssen. Fürwahr spannend!

Peccato non ci sia la versione in italiano. Lo sto leggendo in inglese. E' un libro da leggere se si è vissuto il periodo d'oro della nascita dei personal computer.Da questo libro è stato tratto il film "I Pirati di Silicon Valley"