Rating:  - Great book but be advised of some things:
I liked very much this Book. It's a very "Novelistic" way to tell the History of the "True Hackers" of the 60's, 70's and 80's. The words are on "Big Fonts" so you can read them without hurting your eyes.
Just please de advised of the following:
This book is almost 17 years old. It is not like "Master of Doom" that covers the beginning of a company until the new millenium era. For instace, I bought this copy because I am very interested in the history of Sierra On-line. Few books (on not any) covers the beginning of Ken and Roberta Williams. The thing is that, it is the VERY FIRST BEGINNING, really. It doesn't even focus on the Sierra Games. It tells more the entire Economical and Management backgroud of how Ken (and his staff) made their way to the top of ATARI and Apple with the games provided for them.
It is a very pleasure reading. But I think the big WOW on this book is the Sierra On-Line history. If you want to know more for example about the other hackers mentioned on this book, like Bill Gates or Stephen Woz but in depth, I recommend their own respective Biographies.
Rating:  - This book could have been much more...
I was disappointed with this book: it glossed over many parts of modern computing history to focus on the odd-balls, the unpleasant and the just plain nerdy. The focus appeared to be on MIT SAIL and the early game coding shops. One could be forgiven, if on reading this volume, for believing that micro-computing only happened in the USA on the West Coast.
The definitive hacker/PC history is yet to be written...
Rating: - Reliving my youth...
I absolutely loved this book. The Commodore 64 was my life in the 80's, and it was so interesting to see what lead up to the C64, and read about some of the main people involved. I am an IT Manager now, and I bought this book for both of the guys who work for me...highly recommended!!
Rating: - History and anecdotes make for interesting read
Great book that tells the history of computers using funny and interesting anecdotes. It starts by telling about the first computers at MIT and the instant software-writing community built around them. It then moves to California, introducing the business side of computers and how they hit mainstream. I am halfway through the book right now, which is now telling the story of the first Apple computers. Many famous computer names are mentioned and discussed in this book, including Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, John McCarthy, John Draper and many others. Very interesting read if you are curious about how computers got the way they are today. I loved hearing about the innovations in early computing and how these brought us to our modern computers. It keeps coming back to the community built around these computers, and how it helped hasten the pace of which made them so useful today. Must-read for any computer scientist or engineer.
Rating: - An All-Time Favorite
I've read Hackers by Steven Levy at least five times - and enjoy the heck out of it every time I pick it up. The book gives a history of the characters involved in the development of programming and personal computing as a hobby, career, and indeed an institution. It is broken up into thirds, each section covering a different "era" in the larger history.
Although Levy has been dinged (strongly, by some) for historical and technical inaccuracies in the book, I'm in favor of offering him a full pardon. No other text on this subject has come anywhere near as close to capturing the spirit and ethos of the hacker and the history as Levy's does. The value of this book is not so much knowing names, dates, and every technical detail - but rather getting to know what made and makes these people and this industry tick.
While the first section of the book, which discusses the "birth" of hacking at MIT in the 50's, is clearly the strongest, the whole book stands as a powerful, insightful piece of writing. I can't recommend this book strongly enough - for people unfamiliar with the hacker personality and history, it is a great introduction. For those of us who are among the title crowd, it is like coming home again. It remains firmly in my top 10 favorite books.
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