Rating: 
Summary: GET ON WITH THE RE-PRINT!
Review: I Saw "Pirates of Silicon Valley" and really want to read the book. So Hurry Up with the promotion of the re-print (hopefully with an update appendix chapter).
Rating:
Summary: I think it should be REQUIRED to be read by today's youth!
Review: I saw the movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley" I read the original version of Fire in the Valley. All I can say is that YOU NEED this book. The Movie starts almost where the original book ends. The history of the computers the author relate is amazing. As I was reading I was constantly saying to myself...."I remember that year". I live in Silicon Valley and worked in Palo Alto. The the authors mentioned different cities around the bay area...I thought...WOW, I live here. In fact I worked about 1/8 mile from where the first commercial transistor was developed (they have a momumment out there). After reading the original book, I sat back and just thought "these early pioneers of the PC's where amazing", the time and effort they put into programming a computer less powerful than a calculator and what they did with it. This book should be rated 10 stars! GET THIS BOOK!...BTW....it is about 3 times thicker than the original print!
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Summary: Amazingly objective and accurate account of the PC history
Review: I wasn't in the valley personally, but as a child of the 70's and early 80's I recall a world of computers long before the IBM "Personal Computer" came out. There were Apples, Tandys, IMSAIs, Osborns, Altairs, and a plethora of digital devices that tried to make it into the home or office, way before IBM even considered entering the consumer market. Everyone who was *there* remembers that not only was the IBM PC a late-comer, it was based on the technologies already pioneered by those others -- and in many cases its features were less impressive, sometimes even "lower-tech" than its predecessors. This book not only tells the story of subvertive geeks hacking away in their garages armed with soldering irons and wire-cutters, it paints the pictures so vividly, with such candor, that it transports you back in time so you can experience first hand the PC revolution. You'll live through the various events, some technological, others political, but most of them social, which inspired many people to drop whatever they were doing to join the revolution, for better or for worst. The authors make you realize that the PC revolution was not started with a single product, was not a linear chain of events, and cannot be plotted with a mere timetable of discoveries and inventions (though the book includes such a table, for reference). They show that the PC revolution was an ongoing battle that started with fantastic dreams more than a century ago, was kindled by amazing invetions and discoveries, but was actually fueld by the very human nature to communicate freely and the desire to do so efficiently through machines -- and the passion of creating those machines and breathing life into them with your own hands. Wonderful book, a must read for anybody who was *there*, it will bring back so many nostalgic memories. I also recommend it to anybody who was not there that wonders how it all started and if IBM and Microsoft have really offered us "innovations". -dZ.
Rating:
Summary: Amazingly objective and accurate account of the PC history
Review: I wasn't in the valley personally, but as a child of the 70's and early 80's I recall a world of computers long before the IBM "Personal Computer" came out. There were Apples, Tandys, IMSAIs, Osborns, Altairs, and a plethora of digital devices that tried to make it into the home or office, way before IBM even considered entering the consumer market. Everyone who was *there* remembers that not only was the IBM PC a late-comer, it was based on the technologies already pioneered by those others -- and in many cases its features were less impressive, sometimes even "lower-tech" than its predecessors. This book not only tells the story of subvertive geeks hacking away in their garages armed with soldering irons and wire-cutters, it paints the pictures so vividly, with such candor, that it transports you back in time so you can experience first hand the PC revolution. You'll live through the various events, some technological, others political, but most of them social, which inspired many people to drop whatever they were doing to join the revolution, for better or for worst. The authors make you realize that the PC revolution was not started with a single product, was not a linear chain of events, and cannot be plotted with a mere timetable of discoveries and inventions (though the book includes such a table, for reference). They show that the PC revolution was an ongoing battle that started with fantastic dreams more than a century ago, was kindled by amazing invetions and discoveries, but was actually fueld by the very human nature to communicate freely and the desire to do so efficiently through machines -- and the passion of creating those machines and breathing life into them with your own hands. Wonderful book, a must read for anybody who was *there*, it will bring back so many nostalgic memories. I also recommend it to anybody who was not there that wonders how it all started and if IBM and Microsoft have really offered us "innovations". -dZ.
Rating:
Summary: Amazingly objective and accurate account of the PC history
Review: I wasn't in the valley personally, but as a child of the 70's and early 80's I recall a world of computers long before the IBM "Personal Computer" came out. There were Apples, Tandys, IMSAIs, Osborns, Altairs, and a plethora of digital devices that tried to make it into the home or office, way before IBM even considered entering the consumer market. Everyone who was *there* remembers that not only was the IBM PC a late-comer, it was based on the technologies already pioneered by those others -- and in many cases its features were less impressive, sometimes even "lower-tech" than its predecessors. This book not only tells the story of subvertive geeks hacking away in their garages armed with soldering irons and wire-cutters, it paints the pictures so vividly, with such candor, that it transports you back in time so you can experience first hand the PC revolution. You'll live through the various events, some technological, others political, but most of them social, which inspired many people to drop whatever they were doing to join the revolution, for better or for worst. The authors make you realize that the PC revolution was not started with a single product, was not a linear chain of events, and cannot be plotted with a mere timetable of discoveries and inventions (though the book includes such a table, for reference). They show that the PC revolution was an ongoing battle that started with fantastic dreams more than a century ago, was kindled by amazing invetions and discoveries, but was actually fueld by the very human nature to communicate freely and the desire to do so efficiently through machines -- and the passion of creating those machines and breathing life into them with your own hands. Wonderful book, a must read for anybody who was *there*, it will bring back so many nostalgic memories. I also recommend it to anybody who was not there that wonders how it all started and if IBM and Microsoft have really offered us "innovations". -dZ.
Rating: 
Summary: Too many authors almost spoil the pot
Review: I'll admit it. I became interested in this book from the TNT movie, "Pirates of Silicon Valley". While this book did a good job telling about the important developers in the computer world, it sometimes seemed like the 2 authors hadn't spoken to each other about what each was going to write about. There were numerous times where the same information and humorous stories were repeated just a few pages apart. This was a good start though to learning some background in the birth of the personal computer. After finishing this book, you should read, "Renegades of the Empire" by Michael Drummond. This gives more information about the Microsoft covert operations to thwart other companies!
Rating:
Summary: Too many authors almost spoil the pot
Review: I'll admit it. I became interested in this book from the TNT movie, "Pirates of Silicon Valley". While this book did a good job telling about the important developers in the computer world, it sometimes seemed like the 2 authors hadn't spoken to each other about what each was going to write about. There were numerous times where the same information and humorous stories were repeated just a few pages apart. This was a good start though to learning some background in the birth of the personal computer. After finishing this book, you should read, "Renegades of the Empire" by Michael Drummond. This gives more information about the Microsoft covert operations to thwart other companies!
Rating:
Summary: This book is the Computer Bible
Review: If you're looking for a perfect book to learn about the computer industry, Fire in the Valley is definitly it. I rented the movie, Pirates of Silicon Valley, and it was a great movie. However, Hollywood took out so many important parts, that it only gives you an idea of what went on in the early 70's and 80's as the personal computer developed. Being born in 1983, I grew up with the Texas Instruments computer, C-64, Apple II, Macintosh, and the mainstream desktop PCs that we use today. I was always interested in the history of computing and searched to find a book to fill in the gaps that Pirates of Silicon Valley left out. Fire in the Valley, while not entirely definitive, still does an excellent job giving the reader all the history that he/she could want. As described in previous reviews, it does leave out the Commodore C-64, except for a few references. But this still is the best computer industry history book out on bookshelves. I highly recommend that if you want to know more about the beginnings of Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Balmer, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Ed Roberts and all the others who engineered the personal computer, take a look at this book.
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Summary: The storybook for every Apple maniac
Review: Learn how Bill Gate started it all, how Wozniak and Steve Job built their 2 guy in a garage business to the Apple of today. Read WHY the personal computer was started in the first place. If Apple fan ever missed this book, then you will regret it :-)
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Summary: The best antidote for recent Orwellian history rewrites
Review: Nobody who has read Paul Freiberger's matchless "Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer" will be fooled by spinmeisters like the author of the last sentence in the following paragraph, which just landed on my keyboard with "spin city!" scrawled in the margin: "..However, even the industry's most innovative pioneers didn't foresee how prevalent computers would become. In fact, in 1943, IBM Chairman Thomas Watson remarked, 'I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.' Despite Watson's outlook, other computer-related companies slowly began to emerge, including Hewlett Packard in 1938, Digital Equipment Corp. in 1957, Microsoft in 1975, and Apple a year later. Then, in 1981, trailblazer IBM revolutionized the industry with the first personal computer." Gag me with a spoon, Harold! If the author of this puff piece had ever read "Fire in the Valley", he/she would never dare to call IBM a trailblazer in personal computers! To read about the REAL trailblazers (which admittedly do include Bill Gates and Paul Allen, as well as the Woz and Steve Jobs), you need this book. Read about Traf-O-Data, the Altair, paper tape readers, DiskBasic, the famous Letter to Users, IMSAI, the first Apple logo, CP/M, KayPro and all the rest. It's in there! I can't believe I ever let my original copy of it get away. .-)
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