«A great adventure that gives the reader a sense of being close to a historical movement that is still playing itself out.» – From the foreword by John Markoff, The New York Times.
In Janaury 1975, Popular Electronics magazine published a cover story on the Altair, an odd metal box with switches and blinking lights that proved to be the progenitor of today’s personal computer. Inspired by possibilities that the leaders of the electronics and mainframe computer industries couldn’t see, unlikely enterpreneurs -hippies, dropouts, phone phreaks, and electronic hobbyists- seized the opportunity.
How those personal computer pioneers went from side street garages to Wall Street’s graces, and how their brilliance, anthusiasm, camaraderie, and competition changed the world is all here in Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine’s classic, Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer. First released in 1984, it uniquely captures the explosive, frenetic energy of those early days.
This updated edition features interviews with the major players, new chapters, dozens of new photos, and updates throughout that carry the story forward into the Internet era. The authors convey the exciting development of companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Sun, Netscape, Lotus, and Oracle.
Itself a milestone in the fascinating history of the personal computer, Fire in the Valley is the definitive account of how it all happened and why.
Paul Freiberger is the coauthor of Fuzzy Logic, winner of the 1993 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and has written for the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Examiner, and National Public Radio. He currently works at the Interval Research Corporation in Palo Alto.
Michael Swaine is editor-at-large for Dr. Dobb’s Journal. He is also a popular columnist for print and electronic magazines in the United States, Italy, and Germany, and maintains Swaine’s World, a Web site that tracks computer industry news, at www.swaine.com
