Customer Reviews

Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer, Collector's Edition

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

.-)

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!

For the life of me, I cannot understand why this book and so many others completely fail to mention Commodore and it's contributions to the PC world. 1st millionth computer sold with VIC-20. Most computers ever sold with C64 (over 20 million!). First multitasking, etc. with Amiga. etc., etc... Commodore created the first, affordable home computer. They introduced computers to the masses. While Apple was trying to sell their Apple II series for astronomical prices, C64 was being sold for 1/3 - 1/5 the price.

I trully hope that in the end, the historical accounts of the birth of a personal computer will give credit where the credit is due - Chuck Peddle for creation of the 6502 processor, and Commodore for creation of the most sucesfull computer ever made - C64.

This book speaks of a silent and bloodless revolution that made enthusiastic hobbyists into legends that created the PC market. It talks about the journey of computer technology, taken from the clutches of the guarded computer "priesthood", to the masses. This is current history, and it's exciting. It's relevant to today, and it even makes those of us old enough to remember some of it reminisce. School teaches children to learn from the past with the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution. This is THE book to tell everyone about the Personal Computer Revolution. Fire in the Valley recounts the sparks with "The Mother of All Demos" to the storming of the gates with the GUI wars. And as a small plus, the authors have thrown in a CD with some short audio interviews, copies of pictures found in the book, and a nice timeline that's useful for reference. Anybody who has watched Pirates of Silicon Valley, and thought, "WOW", needs to find out just how amazing it really was. I can't wait to see what happens in the next 25 years, and then maybe reminisce with a 3rd edition of this book.

This is a great updated reprint of a classic book on the history of the personal computer. If you are interested in reading about the amazing success stories and the equally amazing failures of the early computer pioneers then order the paperback version of this book. I was anxious to hold out for the coll-ed when I heard it would contain a CD with pictures and origional audio interviews. The CD turns out to be a total rip-off in my opinion as it only contains a few poorly scanned photos which are already in the book and the audio clips are very short. Get the 5 star paperback version and save the extra money.

What a thoroughly enjoyable book! This is a stunning picture of the development of the personal computer and companies it spawned. It tries to cover an enormous amount of ground, which is why I forgive it for being somewhat shallow at times. Its coverage of the early days, such as the 1975 Altair, is in some ways better and more detailed than later years. I wanted a few more technical details and a few less horror stories about companies folding from competition with Microsoft. But overall, it is still a great read, very fast. The chapters are small, which helps!

"Fire in the Valley" chronicles the history of the personal computer from the Altair to the iMac and all that happened between those two events. The authors chronicle the importance of the magazines, the clubs, and the conventions and how computers went from being for hobbists to everybody else. This is one book that should be a required reading for all.

I just got word from "Fire in the Valley" co-author Michael Swaine that the updated and re-edited version of this tome to the Personal Computer will be released by McGraw-Hill in December, with a collector's edition hard-bound version scheduled for release in January, to coincide with the 25 year anniversary of the Altair announcement in Popular Electronics. The collector's edtion will feature a CD-ROM with sound clips. This should help to satisfy the demand for this long out-of-print book. Perhaps it will provide a clearer story of IMSAI and my ascension to ownership of the trademarks and production rights!

-Thomas "Todd" Fischer

Originally written in 1984, Fire in the Valley is an excellent synopsis of the beginnings of the computer industry, the devices, the people, and the egos that drive Silicon Valley in it's early days. The book is filled with details about the early computers, the hobbyists, and the fledging corporations (often three guys in a basement) that were building a mega-industry seemingly overnight. While filled with details, the book flows well and reads quickly thanks to generally lucid prose. The authors do a good job of conveying the enthusiasm and idealism of those times and interviewed many of the key participants including Steve Jobs and Bill Gates for their perspective on those days.

This version of the book brings the story essentially up to date, documenting the rise of the World Wide Web and the various wars over browsers that eventually got Microsoft into trouble.

If you like computers pick this up. If you like historical books about great periods of history (and don't kid yourself, the rise of the personal computer and the world wide web qualify) pick this up. If you want to know why the machine you currently have is designed the way it is pick this up, it's an enjoyable read.

First, this is a good book, and brings to light many of the early parts of
home and business use of microcomputers.

However, despite the "updated classic" state of the current printing, it
contains factual errors that should be corrected. I started the book
recently, and almost threw it out after seeing the historical errors in
the front of the book.

On page 9, the authors refer to ENIAC's "clanking teletype machines and
whirring tape drives". Fascinating, since the tape drive for computer
didn't arrive until 1951 (with the first Univac), and the ENIAC read and
wrote cards.

The book also drags out the tired story of Von Neumann creating the basic
architecture of the stored program computer. This is mainly a media
creation, since Von Neumann himself never claimed to have designed
the stored program computer, and in fact, all he did do was place his
name on a report from the EDVAC group drafted on a possible successor to
the ENIAC.

After the authors left early computer history, and went into the early
origins of the home microcomputer revolution, I felt better about the
book. However, I am skeptical of books where I see such obvious errors.
I have to wonder what other errors exist that I simply don't have
personal knowledge of.

Unfortunately, this may never be seen 35 reviews deep, but this book
is often quoted as being the "authority" on microcomputers.
Mrs Freiberger and Swain, please FIX THIS BOOK. It needs to be reviewed
for accuracy.

Scott Moore