The Story of the Computer: A Technical and Business History Kindle Edition

It is very nice book for everybody interested in history of computers. It covers both technical and business sides of computer industry. However, it is true that business story is given in deeper details than technical one. On the other hand, business issues regarding computing are also very interesting. I would say that book is nice thanks to the fact that it describes beging of many today famous and large computer companies (like IBM, Apple, Microsoft and Intel) in highly realistic and pure light. Founders of vast majority of the companies had to face many problems, especially with funding of their business. It was not pink American dream at all. I would say that in many cases the companies have survived by accident.Regarding the technical part of computing, the book is going from the earliest ages of computing in the 16th century, describing mechanical calculators, like Pascilne or Leibnitz's steeper reckoner and of course Babbage's differential engine. Then the first electro-mechanical and electrical computers are presented, like a Conrad Zusse engines or Vanevar Bush's differential analysers. Description of the "true age" of electronic computers starts with Colusus and ENIAC, then transistorised computers are introduced. Next part of the book is dedicated to development of large mainframe computers as well as minicomputers in 60's and 70's. In the last part of the book one chapter contains description of graphical interfaces development (interestingly the history of GUI begins in 50's). Last chapters are dedicated to modern age of computing, like founding of Apple, introducing of Windows etc. I highly appreciate that author of the book decribed very important role of firm Xerox in the computer history. As you can find in the book, Xerox was pionner of the GUI and many other very modern concepts like a e-learnig or even tablets.I would recomend reading of the book for everyone who is interested in computers and general history of engineering.

This was a Christmas gift for my grandpa who worked on the old school computers. He loved it!!!! Didn’t put it down the entire time! He even was pointing out certain computers that he worked on and that he knew the guy/worked with one of the writers/guys mentioned in the book. He was very excited.

Having spent 35 years in the business (1974 - 2009), I found this book extremely well researched and it had just enough technical explanation for anyone to read. Trip down memory lane!!

I enjoyed this book the whole way through. Plenty of names, dates, and jargon thrown around but it was a good read. I got more than I expected from this title.

It is a well researched book. The focus is on hardware evolution.

This was always going to be a big topic for any author to cover, given the speed and size of electronic and IT development in the last 80 or so years. However, as a concise and well researched history, The author gets it right throughout.The book comprehensively covers all of the big milestones in computational machine development, the initial driver being number manipulation without constant human input. There's fascinating detail on the way early machines were developed by pioneers and academic institutions, then an exploration of the world of business and government progress with their large budgets.There are great insights into the solid state and semi-conductor revolution, parallel computing, the big move into business and the route to today's desktop workstations. There are well placed, relevant illustrations throughout.If you like a technical book but not overwhelmingly so, I'd recommend this one. If you were an early adopter of the MAC/IPM PC, are an IT professional with a historical interest, or even a reader of any technology history you'll find it an enlightening read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and being in my 50s I remember a lot of the computers it mentioned from the late 70s onwards. The book is very comprehensive and contains many details and examples from decades worth of development. At times I found this a little too much detailed to absorb and struggled to see some of the relevance but it's easy to bypass sections or even chapters without losing the thread of the book. (as an analogy imagine a book about the modern history of the motor car and as well as detailing the Mini, the Beetle and the Ford Fiesta for example it also went into detail about the Citroen Saxo, the Peugeot 106 and the Hyundai i20 which may be good cars but have no real impact or relevance to the overall picture)In summary this is a fascinating book and an excellent read but be prepared to skip some sections (unless you're more intelligent or have a longer attention span than me!)

Somewhat dense. Not a book to skim through, but fascinating. I found the ingenuity seen in the developmental dead ends (bi-quinary, mercury delay lines, drum memory) and the power achieved in the early machines, as our current technology was approached, to be awe inspiring.

A well written and informative book, even for the non computer literate.

Todo lo que se puede saber sobre la historia de la informática, hard y soft, de una manera didáctica y entretenida