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book review - 'Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World's Most Colourful Company'

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Book title: Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World's Most Colourful Company

Author: Owen W. Linzmayer

ISBN: 1593270100

After reading the insufferable iWoz, I wanted a book about the early days of Apple that didn't suck. A friend gave me Apple Confidential 2.0 for my birthday, and it was just what the doctor ordered. It emphatically didn't suck.

This is a well-written account of Apple, from the early pre-Apple blue box days through the book's 2004 publication. Instead of taking a traditional day-by-day walk through the company's history, Linzmayer arranges his chapters by topic. This makes following the individual threads of Apple much easier. Extra quotes and notes are included in the margins, which add colour and depth to the story. Jef Raskin, who unabashedly called himself the father of the Macintosh, said that this book was the most accurate depiction of how the original Mac was created.

Each chapter mostly stands alone. Since each chapter covers only one topic (say, the development of the Newton), some of the chapters in the tumultuous 90s are a bit hard to follow if you're not already aware of certain pieces of Apple history. Many topics are referenced without a word of explanation, just an occasional pointer to the later chapter. The most glaring examples of this are the references to Be, the Star Trek project, and Copland.

The chapter about the Star Trek project is a great example of another problem of the book. It's too early to talk about more recent developments. Star Trek was the project started in 1992 to bring the Mac OS to Intel. According to this book, the project was shelved in 1993. Typing on a MacTel today, it's obvious that the project was resurrected. I know that I'm not alone in wondering how this actually came about.

Even with those complaints, I recommend the book. The early days of Apple are interesting indeed, and understanding them is critical to understanding Apple today.

Related links:
Amazon's page about this book
author's website

Comments

  • Anonymous
    March 26, 2007
    Just curious - were there any notable differences between this book and iWoz in how the Apple II/III period (1977-1983, more or less) was covered?

  • Anonymous
    March 26, 2007
    iWoz only talks about the design of the Apple II.  It skips pretty much everything else, except for complaining about the Apple III and noting that the Apple II was extremely profitable even after Apple stopped marketing it in favour of the Apple III. This book gives a whole (albeit short) chapter to the Apple III: 'The Apple III Fiasco'.  It also goes into the Lisa and original Mac projects, which iWoz never discussed, so it feels much more complete.

  • Anonymous
    March 27, 2007
    Star Trek and what was to become Mac OS X for ICBMs are two different projects. One was for System 7 (Star Trek) the other for Mac OS X (Marklar?). So that doesn't mean the book is inaccurate or that the project was res-erected.

  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2007
    Um... "t's too early to talk about more recent developments. Star Trek was the project started in 1992 to bring the Mac OS to Intel. According to this book, the project was shelved in 1993. Typing on a MacTel today, it's obvious that the project was resurrected." You do know that OS X is based on NeXTStep, which has ran on Intel for years, right? And actually, Star Trek is related to QuickTime on Windows. That's why there are some standard OS calls you can make via QuickTime.

  • Anonymous
    March 29, 2007
    Yeah, I didn't write that very clearly. :) There's more to say about the idea of running under Intel.  Did any of the ST work impact that?  It's hard to talk about ST and not consider how the current generation came about.

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2007
    there has always been a port of every Mac OS that has run on Intel hardware - internally, just in case. Rhapsody and Yellow Book were immediate precursors to the current setup but they're just the ones Apple talked about. Go make friends with the Virtual Server team and wait till the architect is back in CA on a trip and get the history that way - there are more ex-Apple folk in the non Mac divisions at MS than any other company ;-)