This is a fascinating examination of the tech culture that brought us the PC, Web, and eventually the smart phone. Took some time to slog through, but this tome is filled with engaging stories of the hackers who made our tech-world happen. I will be returning to this many times to mine the stories of innovation and creativity.

The only thing that is missing in this wonderful book is the UNIX era, which constitutes a story by itself. I was really disappointed to see that UNIX is mentioned in only one or two pages (and nothing is mentioned about UNIX and C hackers). Other than that, I think it paints a very vivid and humane picture of a very special period of the history of computing.

I would also recommend it to people who are not technical so that they can understand the mindset and psychology of hackers better. The distinction between the styles of serious business computing and passionate, obsessive, creative and innovative hacking pushing the boundaries is also made very clear in the book. That distinction still exists today, even though the flagship of modern hacking GNU/Linux is becoming more and more of a business commodity rather than a risky playground for trying out really groundbreaking ideas. I also recommend the book to programmers, hackers and technical managers so that they know more about the past of their field. The roads taken and the roads not takes.

I must admit that I learned much more about the history of Homebrew Computer Club and game hacking from this book, wish it contained more stories about Commodore, ZX Spectrum and Amiga.

So grab some Chinese food, set up your hacking environment, put this book on your desk and give it a go! :)

Having lived in the times vacuum tube digital processors, and building computer by soldering components onto boards, I lived much the same stuff talking about in this book. I built an Altais and an Apha Micro AM-100, which in like a PDP-11 Computer system. I spent about $35k, on the complete system. That in the time before I got married.

There are few books that compare to this report styled expose of the very foundations of the tech industry. Having only just read this some decades after it was first written, Steven Levy debunks the "hacker" myths and helps to define the core principals of what the original MIT hackers set out to achieve.
This will become my recommendation to anyone interested in computers or applications.

Really cool and interesting book, raises cool ideas into not only the hacker ethic, but also technology and history of "hacking". It was a little long but worth it. Got to look into the history of nerds and the culture revolving hacking and computers. Showed the believes of old hackers, and shows how they've evolved throughout the generations. Shows the core beliefs of old hackers dating all the way back to when computer were the size of gigantic rooms.