Book details of 'Apple Confidential: The Real Story of Apple Computer, Inc.'

Title	Apple Confidential: The Real Story of Apple Computer, Inc.
Author(s)	Owen W. Linzmayer
ISBN	188641128X
Language	English
Publisher	No Starch Press

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Back to shelf Computer history/fun
Amazon.com info for Apple Confidential: The Real Story of Apple Computer, Inc.

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Apple Confidential: The Real Story of Apple Computer, Inc.':

Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
Owen Linzmayer's Apple Confidential is subtitled The Real Story of Apple Computer, Inc., and while nobody will ever know the complete, "real" story about Apple, Linzmayer's is probably as close as they come. Having covered Apple news since 1980, he offers extensive insider details about Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, John Sculley, Gilbert Amelio, Bill Gates, and other major players whose lives were (and are) intertwined with Apple's history. And along the way, we also learn about lesser-known figures whose stories have remained hidden in the Apple myth: Ronald Gerald Wayne, for example, who was actually a partner with Wozniak and Jobs in the original incarnation of the company, but who sold his share when he realized he would be financially vulnerable if it should fail. Linzmayer's tale does have a few drawbacks. Because he mixes a chronological narrative with chapters that focus on key points in the Apple story, he sometimes repeats himself. Case in point: the chapter "Big Bad Blunders" makes a great record of Apple's failures, but the story of the exploding Powerbook 5300s is duplicated at later points. Nonetheless, Apple Confidential is rife with gems that will appeal to Apple fanatics and followers of the computer industry. Especially enjoyable are the revelation of "Easter eggs" that are hidden in several versions of the Mac operating system; the many screen shots, timelines, and telling quotes from Jobs, Gates, Wozniak and others that populate the margins and concluding sections of each chapter; the "Code Names Uncovered" section that makes public the monikers of several secret Apple projects; and Bill Gates's 1985 letter to John Sculley and Jean Louis Gassee pleading for Apple to license Mac technology and develop a "standard personal computer."
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
Whether you use a Mac, PC, Linux box, big iron, or no computer at all you'll find something to read, and probably chuckle over, in this book. Linzmayer has a history of the Macintosh (and some other boxes, as well) packed with personalities, quotes, trivia, timelines, tables, and more. You can read, dip, or browse as you please. Of course, your pleasure may be just slightly tempered if you have also read "The Mac Bathroom Reader" (see reviews) by the same author, and published a few years back by Sybex Computer Books. A footnote to the introduction states that some material in "Apple Confidential" was originally published in "The Mac Bathroom Reader" but, while the material is not identical, it is strikingly similar. A great deal of content is repeated verbatim, with only some formatting changes. It's sometimes hard to say that a particular chapter has a topic, but along the way, you'll meet the forgotten co-founder of Apple, short- sighted companies, code names, the Apple, Apple][, Apple III, the Mac, NeXT, Lisa, 1984, Lemmings, Bill Gates, John Sculley, dumb users, and the insiders. Historical content, of course, does not go out of date, and there has been some attempt to add chapters on later material. This latter content is very different from the earlier stories, though. Personalities are much more distant, and the narratives are much less confidential, tending to be compilations of speeches, marketing announcements, and annual reports. The latter chapters are a handy reference to developments at Apple, but they simply don't have the life of the earlier content. The new format is not quite as easy to follow as the old. Quotations and marginal notes are more extensive, with the margins now occupying almost half the page. The constant need to flip back and forth between the main text and the sidebars (and the marginal material is often necessary if you really want to understand the main narrative) makes the book much harder to read than it might have been otherwise. For those new to the story of Apple, this is a good recounting of the early days, and a factbook of the history of the corporation and its machines. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1999
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Book description:

Computer industry watcher Owen Linzmayer here lays out the ups and downs of Apple Computer's tumultuous history, from its legendary founding in 1976, through a series of disastrous executive decisions, to its return to profitability. Backed by exhaustive research, he debunks many of the myths surrounding Apple, the Mac, and its culture.