Book details of 'Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace'

Title	Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace
Author(s)	James Wallace
ISBN	0471180416
Language	English
Publisher	John Wiley & Sons

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace':

Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
While Microsoft was occupied with the largest, most expensive consumer marketing effort in history, the launch of Windows 95, Netscape was equally busy capturing the Web browser market. By mid-1995 it looked as if Bill Gates and company had missed the paradigm shift created by the Internet, and many pundits doubted Microsoft could recover. Meanwhile, the Justice Department was aggressively investigating claims of unfair practices levied by Microsoft's competitors. Suddenly the company found itself in the unfamiliar role of lumbering corporate giant--and underdog. James Wallace's Overdrive, his sequel to Hard Drive, is the story of Microsoft's response to this challenge. A veteran investigative reporter, the author paints a vivid portrait of Gates's determination and competitive ferocity, with a host of revealing anecdotes and details as backdrop. The battle for control of cyberspace is far from over, but Microsoft is clearly not to be trifled with. The tale of how the company repositioned itself in the race makes for fascinating reading.
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
Although it occasionally refers to earlier episodes, the book concentrates on Gates, and Microsoft, from 1992 (where "Hard Drive", [cf. BKHRDDRV.RVW] left off) until 1996. Since this period of the company's existence was marked by lawsuits and investigations by the US Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department, it is very timely as a backgrounder to the current legal woes at Microsoft. The book covers a lot of ground, moving from topic to topic in a logically connected style that makes the reading flow easily. The stories are very personal, in that they trace friendships and enmity across companies, products, people, and events. A number of the stories are a kind of trivia filler, developed in a paragraph and never heard from again. There are also some journalistic discoveries about the world's richest man. It makes for an interesting read, although sometimes the reader gets caught in an analysis of whether this item is important or not. Most of the time the text is quite authoritative, faltering mostly when the author is probably being most careful, such as when there are conflicting accounts of the involvement of a given individual in a given incident. Wallace's work is well-researched and witty, but not always technically informed. The Internet is half of the subject of the book, and yet Wallace seems unaware of the explosive growth the Internet enjoyed even before the availability of the World Wide Web. Also, Tim Berners-Lee did not just invent HTML (HyperText Markup Language): arguably his larger contribution was the HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) specification which governs the interaction between Web browsers and clients, allowing HTML to function. Once again, this lack of accuracy in detail will raise flags in the technical reader as to the veracity of other parts of the account. Those who know something of the history of personal computers, however, will find sufficiently faithful retailing of other occurrences to restore trust. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998
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