Insanely Great: The Life and Times of MacIntosh, the Computer That Changed Everything
Author: Steven Levy
List Price: $20.95
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ISBN: 0670852449
Publisher: Viking Press (January, 1994)
Sales Rank: 2,346,518
Average Customer Rating: 4 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
The Macintosh Evolution
Insanely Great takes a look at how the Macintosh evolved from a garage with two hippies and a soldering iron into a multi billion dollar company. Unlike what the title suggests this book does not spend a whole lot of time talking about Steve Jobs. Instead, this book focuses on a part of Apple's history that is really, as far as I have seen, not very well documented. It discusses in detail the evolution of the Macintosh from the inside, talks to people directly involved with the project and really shows this part of the computer revolution from the inside out. For those of you who are PC users this book will help you understand the Mac way of thinking. Levy is a true Mac person but writes in a fairly unbiased manner. This book is a great read for anybody who enjoys the history of how computers became what they are, as well as all Mac users.
Rating: 5 out of 5
No hero worship here.
What I find most satisfying about Levy's style is that he resisted the urge to indulge in hero worship. It's really difficult when dealing with the sort of people he's talking about.After all, this is the computer that's always been "better", stands to reason the people behind it would be interesting. So it's a real relief for me that Levy didn't focus on any one of the people involved (it wouldn't have been easy anyway since the Macintosh project involved so many people who left their mark).The book is quite entertaining, and attains just the right level of concentration required to mimic the frenzied work that went into the mac. When you come out of 'insanely great' you get the feeling that you know a lot of these people, and that you understand what they did. This is only true because Levy speaks of their faults as well as their amazing abilities. The book isn't a blow by blow account of the development of the mac. I got the sense that numerous little details had been kept out of my view so that the bigger picture could present itself. This was probably a good decision to make, since the book could have gone on endlessly. If you want to know how the germ of an interface that felt like home was born, how it took a group of people who believed it would change the world to make it a reality, to get some idea of what went on while the great texts of the Macintosh religion were being discovered and written, and if you want to hear some of the greatest corporate/computer metaphors you'd ever encounter, you need this book. Maybe, just maybe you'll come out of this with a real understanding of why 'real artists ship' and what it means to make a dent in the universe. If you've ever used a Mac and wondered why it felt so good, you should read Levy's book.
Rating: 5 out of 5
I for "Internet"
Once upon a time, a guy named Steve had a vision: to take IBM's place in the computer industry. Not by copying IBM's ideas as Michael Dell did. No. By innovating...
Steve Jobs, a charismatic and driven individual, who wears the same outfit so he doesn't have to waste his time deciding what to wear, and who once was exiled from his own company, came back. Although many critics always thought of Jobs as an opportunistic individual, more than creative and visionary, and labeled him as a "One Hit Wonder" was able to make a "Come Back." This book tells the story of the first Mac, the one that only a few people knew about, and then, it takes you through a journey of one of the greatest companies ever founded: Apple, Inc. The story that almost wasn't told. After years of mismanagements and senior executives not understanding what Apple Computers was all about, Steve Jobs returned not just to save the company, but also to redirect where the company was headed. As many people said, "Apple was off track," and it was, it really was. However, Jobs' return not only brought blood back to Apple, but also put them on the black ink once again.
Before picking up this book, ensure that you have enough time to read it all at once. You won't be able o put it down. If you are a Mac fan, or if you are just interested in knowing a bit more of what Apple has gone through, this book is for you.
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