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When Computing Got Personal

A History of the Desktop Computer

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When Computing Got Personal

By: Matt Nicholson
Narrated by: Norman Gilligan
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About this listen

This is the story of how a handful of geeks and mavericks dragged the computer out of corporate back rooms and laboratories and into our living rooms and offices. It is a tale not only of extraordinary innovation and vision but also of cunning business deals, boardroom tantrums and acrimonious lawsuits.

Here you will find some of the most intelligent and eccentric people you could hope to meet, including wide-eyed hippies, subversive students, computer nerds, entrepreneurs, hackers, crackers and financial backers. Some lost out and some became millionaires, but all played a part in transforming our world.

©2014 Matt Nicholson (P)2015 Matt Nicholson History History & Culture Computer History

Critic Reviews

"I have read numerous books on the history of personal computing and rate this one highly." (Tim Anderson, ITWriting)
"I enjoyed this book; it has obviously been extremely well researched, and is well written and takes a coherent route through the history." (Kay Ewbank, I Programmer)
"Matt Nicholson ... was in a position to observe all this first-hand." (Wendy M Grossman, ZDNet)
All stars
Most relevant  
Didn't know what to expect when I started listening but I was very pleasantly surprised. It is an excellent book that covers personal computers from the very beginning with lots of information I hadn't heard before. Covers the USA and Europe and goes right up to when the book was published. The narrator seems a bit... staid? when you start, but it's an apt performance for the subject matter. If you have any interest in computer history, you will love this book.

Great Computer History

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As a software developer that's too young to have lived through a fair bit of this, it's great to know the history. Helps me understand the current situation.

The content is structured well and engaging. The performance was pretty boring but wasn't "bad". Just room for improvement.

Great for us young 'uns

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