An anecdotal history of the computer industry, this book focuses on odd personalities - Steve Jobes, Steve Wozniak, Mitch Kapor and Bill Gates - as well as on the hacker culture they spawned. The manias and foibles of these men are revealed, and their neuroses have shaped the computer business.

Reviews

Readers of the computer industry journal Info World will recognize Cringely as the weekly columnist who openly solicits industry secrets from readers. Here, he offers an irreverent explanation (he says it's harder to be an explainer than a historian) of the computer culture together with an informative chronology of the major computer companies and the personalities that have shaped the industry. His informal insights presented in a characteristically wry manner will make this a popular book for a wide audience.-- Joseph Barth, U.S. Military Acad. Lib., West Point, N.Y.

Rich in relevant, entertaining digressions, this breezy but informative history recounts how gifted, maverick ``nerds,'' ``hippies'' and entrepreneurs like Apple's Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs invented and developed microprocessors and operating systems into today's volatile, ego-driven, highly competitive personal computer industry, in which ever-changing technical standards propel the market. Info World columnist Cringley charges that the astronomical sales of PCs ($70-billion worldwide in 1990) ``both created the longest continuous peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history and ended it.'' While current dominance by IBM spurs competitors to further research and networking, the author predicts that by the year 2000 single chips will render today's PCs obsolete and that of American technology only software will survive. ( Feb. )

"The title is an inspiration, and Cringely's whimsical, matter of fact style--an attribute altogether missing in the urgent, go-go lifestyles of the people he writes about--makes the book itself worth reading. It has a sense of perspective most books about the high-tech priesthood sorely lack."-- "USA Today""A wonderfully readable, acerbic and funny tale of America's most important industry'"-- Tom Peters"Cringely writes in a tone that's part "Spy Magazine, " part "Newsweek, " and part "The Wonder Years.""-- "Los Angeles Times""An epic tale. The best book on the subject so far."-- "New York Daily News""A fascinating book . . . well worth the time."-- "Sacramento Bee"As compelling and entertaining read as "Barbarians at the Gate."-- Roger von Oech