Netscape Time : The Making of the Billion-Dollar Start-Up that Took on Microsoft
Author: Jim Clark, Owen Edwards
List Price: $24.95
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ISBN: 0312199341
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (23 June, 1999)
Sales Rank: 25,826
Average Customer Rating: 3.59 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 2 out of 5
The Big Whine
This book is so closely aligned with Jim Clark's view of the world that the real drama of software development is lost. Clark claims he's not a whiner, but he spends page after page downing SGI and Microsoft. I would rather that he had spent time focusing on the lives of his programmers, in the way that a far better book, Show-Stopper!, by G. Pascal Zachary, did. In Show-Stopper!, real tension and non-stop action builds as Windows NT is built. That book has little to do with Bill Gates, but instead hones in on the intimate life details of David Cutler and his NT crew. In contrast, Netscape Time has ever redundant and tiresome themes, which if eliminated, would have halved the size of the book. Clark takes credit for founding the company but then, humbly at least, admits that Marc Andreesen and his NCSA crew are the real genius behind Netscape. Maybe someone will write that story in more detail sometime.
Rating: 5 out of 5
LIGHT THROUGH A MOSAIC
Would you spend twenty dollars to spend about 8 hours listening to Jim Clark reminisce about starting SGI and Netscape? Then buy the book.For those familiar with the struggle of trying to accomplish something innovative, you will find his story strangely familiar. For those trying to innovate something on the Internet, you will find this book very encouraging. For those who read between the lines, you will find that it's not about the money, it's about "getting it" and being right, and money is the proof statement in this brave new world.
Clark's direct no-nonsense style can be in your face at times, and you can see why the dense just couldn't get it, because no one likes being shouted awake from a deep sleep. But like most prophets, Clark sees no profit in beating around the burning bush. It seems to be a trait of the innovator.
There is some real insight buried among the stories, as well as advice on how to deal with VCs and dilution of equity, problems many of us look forward to having.
This should be an audio CD, since it is more of an epic poem than a book. It would be great to have a DVD version with addition points of view and multimedia. Netscape made the Internet a multimedia experience; it would seem only fitting that a book by its founder would do the same.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Good story, shame about the author
I found the book to be a reasonably enjoyable read, however I must say that the author's high opinion of himself seems to shine through on almost every page and really put me off. We don't want to know about his boats, wealth, etc... just the story would do.I read a different version, and the cover had just him on the front with a really self satisfying grin. And there were NO photos in the book to relate the story to!
Could have been much better.
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