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Summary: Debunks some myths...
Review: 1) This book clears up a myth about the Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) debacle: In the TLC documentary "Revenge of the Nerds" and in the recently-aired TNT original movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley", it is implied that the Xerox researchers were anxious to have their GUI receive exposure in the world of personal computers and were frustrated by the Xerox executives' lack of interest. Levy contradicts this: according to his account the PARC people were "true" scientists, a lot more interested in theory than application and somewhat disdainful of unleashing their ideas on the masses (a notable exception, according to Levy, being Larry Tesler who later joined Apple.) He portrays PARC as something of an ivory tower of computer science academics who were unconcerned with any public reception of their ideas, rather than as a nascent software developer that was swindled of its "props" by the indifference of Xerox and the acquisitiveness of the Macintosh team. As I have not read any of the other books about Apple and the famed PARC heist, I don't know whether Levy's assertions have been confirmed by any other writers.2) Another issue which is related to the above is the popular belief that the developers of the Mac OS owed everything to the work of the PARC people. Levy challenges this, siting several specific instances in which the Mac developers (notably Bill Atkinson and his "QuickDraw") completely invented solutions to problems in the interface that had been poorly or not at all dealth with by PARC. While Levy admits that the Mac team were indeed standing on the shoulders of giants (more than just PARC, too), he is also quick to point out that their creation was no mere heist, but a thoughtful and sometimes brilliant reworking and utilization of a pre-existing paradigm. 3) One of my few problems with "Insanely Great" is that it falls into the same rhetorical trap as many other writings about Apple and Mac: namely, that the Mac's loyal following is based on an affinity to the company's culture and philosophy rather than its technology; the terms "cult" and "religion" are bandied about liberally. This is a misconception. Loyalty to the Mac results from its ease of use: its intuitive interface is far superior to anything that has been made available in the consumer marketplace in the history of personal computing. I would be a Mac loyalist even if their corporate culture was one of xenophobia and conservatism: a good product is a good product, period.
Rating: 
Summary: It took me 4 days to read it!
Review: A chronological history that reads like a screenplay. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and read it all in 4 days. I would recommend this book if you are interested in a potted history. The only problem is it doesn't delve into characterising the key people that well, but still an excellent book.
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Summary: Required reading for any computer user
Review: A wonderful book providing information on how Macintosh was born. While this book does not go into a full historical review of personal computers nor does it explain how Apple started, it does complete its titled premise: addressing what makes Macintosh insanely great and how it made a dent in the universe. While following the birth and childhood of Macintosh, this book accounts when and why things went wrong. The good news is that Macintosh is simply a young adult with quite a bit of growing up still to do. With the shipping of iMac, it's time again to look up this book and insist that Levy begin a sequel.
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Summary: This book should ship with Macintoshes
Review: Do you want to understand the Macintosh Religion? This book may not be the Bible, but it is pretty much the handbook. Enthusiastcally recommended.
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Summary: Reminiscing
Review: I bought my first computer, a Macintosh, in 1984. I had wanted a computer for years, watching friends with envy at their Commodore 64s, Radio Shack Color Computers, and wonderful Apple IIs. When the Macintosh was introduced in 1984, I had to have it. It was the computer built "for the rest of us." Never mind that I could have had everything I needed in a computer--word processing program, a few games--for $$$, as soon as I sat down in front of the Macintosh, my life changed. The Macintosh, and the entire graphical user interface concept, was truly "insanely great," as Steven Levy quotes Steve Jobs, former chairman of Apple Computers. In his new book, Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything, Levy reveals how and why the Macintosh had such an impact on the world. Although the Macintosh debuted in 1984, the seeds of its design had been planted as early as 1945. In a post-war statement, Vannevar Bush, then the director of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development, wrote an essay in which he contended that the next step of technology should be the way we collect and process information. Having seen the early use of computers in the war, Bush realized the awesome potential of high-speed information management, but also knew that progress would have to be made in the interface if ever information management could be useful. Levy follows the chain that links Bush to Alan Kay, who proposed the Dynabook, a forerunner of today's PDA technology, to the developers at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center who developed the first graphical user interface (GUI). Nearby, a small team of dedicated programmers were working on the low-cost hardware that became teamed with the new GUI concept that became the Macintosh. Much has been written about the originality of the GUI concept, and more than one lawsuit has been fought over it. Levy attempts to go beyond the simple desktop metaphor and explain why it was the particular Macintosh implementation of the concept that changed the way people viewed computers. Xerox's researchers were quite happy just to discover "how" to do things; it was Jef Raskin, Steve Jobs, Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfield, and the rest of the Macintosh team that were driven to give GUI to the people. The concept alone didn't change the world of computing--it was the concept, in a reasonably priced computer, with a "killer application" that showed just how intuitive the concept could be that made things happen. Early Macintosh adoptees like myself thought it was the "What You See is What You Get" word processing and graphic programs that would make everyone see the light. It took Aldus' PageMaker to break the publishing barrier for the "rest of us" to wake up to the possibilities. The Macintosh implementation had (and has) its problems, which Levy does not gloss over. The initial Macintosh, that computer that I bought in 1984, was released underpowered (128k RAM), without enough storage space (it only had a single floppy drive capable of holding 400k), and crippled in expandability (it was a "closed" system without expansion slots). Apple knew this upon its release, but "real programmers ship," as Jobs is quoted saying, and the Macintosh had to be out the door in 1984. Apple quickly followed the 128k Macintosh with an upgrade to 512k and a 800k disk drive, then with new models including a Macintosh with slots. The author, Steven Levy, is perhaps best known in the field for his first book, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Levy's position as an industry journalist kept him in the midst of the impact of the Macintosh, with access to Jobs, John Sculley, Jean Louis Gasse, Bill Gates, Aldus' president Paul Brainerd, and almost every member of the Macintosh development team. This chronicle of the development of the Macintosh is part history, part evaluation of the hits and misses, the politics and relationships, of all these people. Every implementation of the GUI interface as seen in the Macintosh was deeply argued, as was its cost, hardware, and "look." Levy shows you that a product such as Macintosh, which is usually attributed to a few people, is actually the culmination of the development team, and also their forerunners, including the Xerox team, and their competitors, most notably Microsoft and IBM. Today, the GUI concept is ever present. My original Macintosh (which I fondly call the MacAntique), after being upgraded once, has been passed to my niece and nephew (who, to be entirely truthful, play more with their father's Mac II than with the antique), and I replaced it four years ago with an IBM-PC clone that runs today's most popular GUI, Microsoft Windows (the defection was a result of economics--I couldn't afford a new Macintosh). The last command-line holdout, UNIX, is battering down the hatches in defense against the migration of the GUI in the form of the WWW, Java, and its ilk. The Macintosh revolution is twelve, and shows no signs of dying anytime soon. For those who want to understand the early shots--computerdom's equivalent's of the Boston Tea Party and the shot that was heard round the world--Levy's book is a good primer.
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Summary: Biased Reporting
Review: I found the author biased in his book. He was obviously an Apple/Macintosh supporter in the war between Apple and IBM. I respect the author for his thorough research on the subject. He had done very good work on the history of Apple/Macintosh and I found the book engaging in that respect. I knew more about the computer industry after reading the book. However, I was dissapointed that the author had not displayed more objectivity. Right from the beginning, he started gushing about what a great computer the Mac was, and how it changed his life. He did make a few fair comments on the poor performance in some aspects of the Mac, but inevitably, he always come up with some excuses or other for the computer. Throughout the book, I get the feeling that the author was very pro-Apple. I feel that to get a fair and accurate picture of the industry, I will have to read another account of the industry, maybe this time from a pro-IBM view. I recommend this book to those who are ardent Apple fans and who wants to know more about the computer and how it was developed. Be warned though, that it is a biased report and it is good not to believe everything the author says.
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Summary: Informative yet needs updating
Review: I found this book greatly enjoyable. I didn't really like the last third of it, which seems to drag along and is written at a very slow pace but the first two thirds were very enjoyable. Written in a dynamic tone it goes through very quickly and that could be the only real caveat I can find in it. It lasts 4 hours at the most. All in all I'd recommend it as a good story and a means to find out about how Apple came to be. I'd recommend it specially for people who also bought "The Mac Bathroom Reader" by Owen Linzmayer, for which this book could be a great introduction. If I had to change anything I'd update it (since it covers only until 1994 or so and misses some great moves Apple has pulled recently) and I'd update the look of it, since it looks very "passe".
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Summary: Macintosh RIP!!
Review: I like to call this book "The Epic of Macintosh." I read it at my local public library in 3 hours, after I left work. It is not a book that I highly recommend simply because it seems to be one long eulogy that canonizes anyone and everyone who was originally affiliated with Macintosh back in the early 80's. But if I might rely on the proverbial "silver lining," Steven Levy does reveal quite a few things about the advent of this machine that continues to, as Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple Computers, put it,"change the world." He talks about the LISA, Apple's first marketed PC--and its failure, and the people at PARC (Palo Alto Research Center,) who aided in its development into what would later become the Macintosh. He also has an uncanny way of depicting Steve Jobs as a benevolent Christ figure with a mission. One point I did find particularly interesting was the debt of gratitude all PC users owe to the Apple Corporation. Apple's design for a GUI (graphic user interface) epitomized their insistence for finding an easier way for the consumer to navigate through a computer. This made the machine much more personal and tactile. The stodginess and sluggishness of command lines, characteristic of the old IBM's, were integrated into systems with which future developers could fathom, much less create, virtual reality. Levy traces the story of the Macintosh as if he is telling us about his fiancée who has three months to live. I must admit that I have yet to find a user who speaks of his PC with such affection. However, this is common in the Macintosh arena. What is so amazing is that no matter how many times their hard drives crash, the Macintosh community swears by their machine with an allegiance that would turn any Latin American military leader green with envy. Seeing this, I had visions of the Cult of Isis and the Cult of Caesar, only to find out, with no great surprise, that there was already a Cult of Macintosh. I believe that the consumers who are loyal to Mac! intosh, not only stay allied to the company for its product, but also its ethos, which is sung by Levy as he depicts the overall feeling of the people originally involved with Macintosh, people who wanted to "change the world" or "make a dent in the universe." This feeling pervades still with today's Macintosh consumer. And although the Mac sometimes seems on the upswing, one cannot help but wonder what will become of this company. Levy attributes the business blunderings of former Apple bigwig John Sculley to the demise of Macintosh. I fear the Cult of Macintosh will cease to exist. How many gods have died due to lack of followers?
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Summary: Excellent history, but missing some things.
Review: I loved this book. It was very entertaining and was as concise as can be expected, given its price. However, it seemed to skip a few important things in Apple History, but I'm not going to nit-pick.
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Summary: Excellent, even moving account of Apple
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The history of Apple, from its lowly origins to the well-known company it is today, is described in great detail. Most interesting is the development of the Macintosh, particularly the role played by Steve Jobs. If you are at all interested in recent history, you will admire the way in which Levy describes corporate business of the 80's. Recommended.
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