The Silicon Boys : And Their Valley of Dreams
Author: David A. Kaplan
List Price: $15.00
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ISBN: 0688179061
Publisher: Perennial (04 April, 2000)
Sales Rank: 27,740
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
Tales of Lust, Greed, and Innovation in the Valley
This book's first chapter at one point refers back to the "Gold Rush fever" that hit San Francisco in the late 1840s. It's a good corollary to those seemingly "seeking gold/riches" in today's Silicon Valley.What struck me most about the book were the stories of excess and power among the Valley's richest executives. People like Larry Ellison, Jim Barksdale & Jim Clark, and Steve Jobs, for example. And yes Bill Gates, even if he is technically about 800 miles to the north.
Speaking of Gates, the author makes what I found to be an interesting observation: That the Justice Department's "wish" to divy up Microsoft into two or more companies would not create more competition. His feeling is that any company complaining about Microsoft's so-called "monopoly" would do better to study how Microsoft got to be where they are and why. The rationale being that the Valley tends to "eat its young," and that it might be easier to stop this "Godzilla" by beating it at its own game.
Among the other stories told here? Stories about the people and companies that got left "behind." Companies like Shockley Semiconductor, academic institutions like the University of Illinois and their original browser, and even people like the tragic figure, Gary Kildal.
The stories in this book most likely have been told elsewhere judging by other reviews I've seen. Even so, they are told in entertaining fashion in this book.
Rating: 5 out of 5
What an amazing book!
Wow. What an amazing book. Not many books live up to my expectations, but this one surpassed it. David Kaplan manages to walk readers through the entire history of Silicon Valley, from orchards, to Apple, to Fairchild, to Intel, to Yahoo! and beyond, explaining every step of the way how each company is interrelated and the geneology of the people and the funding. There are antedotal stories along the way to keep you interested. He tells of the greed, and the lavish lifestyles. We get behind-the-scenes details of the deals that created the companies we all take for granted - Netscape, Microsoft, Yahoo, Intel, Apple, etc. This book is much more than merely the stories of those on the back cover (Yang, Doerr, Andreessen, Gates, Clark, Jobs): It is a detailed, well planned, well executed history of Silicon Valley. Anyone wanting to know the history of the valley or the history of the high tech companies in the valley need look no further than this book. It amazes me that Kaplan was able to pack so much fascinating information into just over 300 pages.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Good Description of Silicon Valley
"The Silicon Boys and Their Valley of Dreams" is a well written description of Silicon Valley at it's peak. It describes the culture of the valley during the nineties. It is an interesting peek into the a world of driven software developers and venture capitalists and everyone else in their galaxies. It focuses on companies and names we've all heard of: Apple, Oracle, Netscape, Microsoft, Intel, and many more. For anyone in the technology industry, this book is a good window onto the 90s - pre dotcom mania. Similar Products
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