Moose O'Malley's Software Valley Established : July 1996 Please bookmark this location only : http://move.to/moose

Like many people with an interest in computers, I was glued to my T.V. during the fabulous 3 hour TV mini-series "Triumph of the Nerds" - which told the history of the Personal Computer business and included many anecdotes, interviews, and interesting stories about the computer industry.

This book, Accidental Empires, was written 4-5 years before the TV series was made, and includes lots of extra information and is a great accompaniment to the TV series.

You certainly don't have to read the book to thoroughly enjoy the TV series, and vica versa.

My brother, Frank, gave me the book for Christmas - thanks Frank !! And I spent most of my time reading the book on some lawn, under a tree, overlooking the beach. A really nice way to read a book, by the way !! Once I started reading this book I couldn't put it down until it was finished.

To quote from the front of the book :

How the boys of Silicon Valley make their millions, battle foreign competition, and still can't get a date.

And, to quote from the back of the book :

After automobiles, energy production, and illegal drugs, personal computers are the largest manufacturing industry in the world and one of the great success stories for American business.

And I'm here to tell you three things :

1. It all happened more or less by accident.
2. The people who made it happen were amateurs.
3. And for the most part they still are.

The book charts the start of the personal computer era - the sale of Altair hobbyist's kit (the first PC), the Homebrew Computer Club, the development of early innovative software (like VisiCalc), the beginnings of Apple (with the Apple 1, Apple ][, the - much, much later on - the Lisa, and the Mac), the development of the PC, the rise of Microsoft, and the fall of many other companies along the way.

What is really astonishing though is how some companies completely failed to capitalise on some of the most important inventions of this century. By the mid 1970's, Xerox Parc (at Palo Alto) had developed the first GUI (Graphical User Interface), the first laser printer, and the first high speed network, the first colour photo copier, but Xerox management could not see the importance of these inventions.

In a historic visit by Apple Computer to Xerox in the late 70's, Steve Jobs saw a GUI for the first time, and was completely blown away !! With Xerox's permission, a team of Apple developers go and make a detailed study of the new GUI OS and then (back at Apple) develop their own - which was used in the Lisa and the Macintosh.

In 1980, Microsoft was a successful software / languages company, while Digital Research was a successful operating system company, selling CP/M - a highly successful OS at the time. In 1980, IBM came to Microsoft to get an operating system and a version of BASIC for their new PC. Microsoft was happy to supply them with BASIC, but sent IBM down the road to Digital Research for the OS.

Because of lack of ambition and because of the frightening IBM Non-Disclosure agreements, Digital Research didn't want to deal with IBM and sent the IBM people away. So, IBM went back down the road to Microsoft, who then scrambled to buy an OS to sell to IBM. After looking around, Microsoft ended up buying QDOS (Quick and Dirty OS - an OS that was very similar CP/M), and paid $50,000 for the rights to it - which was a hell of a lot of money back then - even for Microsoft. Microsoft change the name to MS-DOS, sold licences to IBM and other PC clone makers that came out later on, and look where Microsoft are today !! And a great deal of this success is because they rode on the back of DOS !

The book also charts Apple Computer's rise and fall. In 1980/81, the Apple ][ had more than 50% market share. But, today, Apple are struggling to hold onto less than 10%.

The book also looks at IBM very closely. A slothful, slow changing company that finally decided to get onto the personal computer bandwagon - after seeing 5 years of massive growth and successful products like the Altair, Apple 1, and Apple ][. However, in spite of the run-away success of the personal computer industry, IBM only ever expected to sell 35,000 PCs, and made a lot of decisions that today (with the benefit of hindsight) seem absolutely ridiculous. But, inspite of IBM, the PC was a run way success, and pretty soon other companies (like Compaq) were selling clones.

In fact, the IBM PC (and clones) were such a phenomenal success that from the early 80's, all IBM PCs and clones were simply called PCs. Today, more than 40 million PC's are sold each year.

The book is and very informative. Cringely has a good sense of humour and he was around when the industry started - he was actually employee number 12 at Apple !!

To quote from the Preface to the 1996 edition :

And this is the style that Cringely uses throughout his book - no holds bared, no punches held back. Cringely tells it like it is, and I must say that I think that, at times, he is very brave for doing this. (You'll see what I mean when you read the book !!).

I did have a few small gripes with the book. Firstly, the book centred on America only and ignored all other countries, such as Britain, which also had a significant impact on the personal computer industry. I guess that this is OK though, as America sure did (and still does) call the shots, and a book can only have so many pages. Secondly, towards the end of the book Cringely does tend to be a bit "God Bless America" and egocentric.

But these small gripes detract very little from an excellent work !

To top it all of, Accidental Empires has a full index at the back of the book - something that, I think, a lot more books should have !

I highly recommend Accidental Empires to anyone - not just those who love computers and were around when the Altair and the Apple 1 hit the streets. The book gives the reader a highly amusing and sometimes sad, perspective on the start of the personal computer industry, with information and anecdotes that are both amazing and astonishing.

If this review or the book or the TV series has whetted your appetite for more information on the history and development of computers, see my review of Bit by Bit, An Illustrated History of Computers, by Stan Augarten which is an excellent book that covers the history and development of manual, mechanical, and electronic calculators and computers from the Abucus to the PC !!

Book Summary :

Name :	Accidental Empires
Author :	Robert X. Cringely
Number of Pages :	358 (incl. 8 page Index)
Recommended Retail Price :	$16.95 Aus
First Published :	1993 by Penguin Group
ISBN Number :	0-14-025826-4

Moose's Rating : 9 / 10

The above review is Copyright © Moose O'Malley, 18-Mar-1997.

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