Even if you are not interested in the Mac specifically, this book is still totally engrossing. The book could be about building a black and white widget but that doesn't decrease the inherent value of this book in learning about technology, management, friendship, commitment to greatness, and progress. The fact that the first Macintosh was one of the greatest and most wide spread technological achievements in the past 20 years only makes the book that much more enjoyable.
Some of my personal favorite stories were not even Mac related like the story about Burrel Smith promising best friendship to co-workers in return for favors, just to turn around and promise best friendship to another a few minutes later. He justified this by saying there can only be one best friend at a given instant of time but best friendships my be highly dynamic. The average length of a best friendship is three to five milliseconds. So there's no problem in having a new B.F.R. a second or two later. Another great story is how some of the staff were invited to the huge rock festival (US Festival) that founder Steve Wozniak threw (since he was insanely rich by then). They ended up getting thrown out by Bill Graham and a bouncer without his knowledge just before getting to announce Santana to the attendees. Pretty funny in deed.
These stories aside, the majority of the stories revolve around development of the Mac and all the juicy little tid bits that make us love the Mac and what makes it great. The start up sound, the original icons and programs, the pirate flag over the headquarters, insider opinions about Steve Jobs and early stories about Bill gates are just so great you can't put it down.
Overall this book is a must have for any Mac fan. Just like any behind the scenes documentary you see or read, you come away with a greater appreciation of the work and this book is no doubt a great account from the trenches — the people that lived it for years.
One thing that I found funny though is that the original Mac was supposed to come out priced for the average person. The original street price was supposed to be $500 but ended up being around $2500 because they wouldn't sacrifice quality and of course there had to be money in there for marketing, etc. This was the start of the Mac being a supposed second class citizen to the PC. But I found it very interesting that a few days after finishing this book, Apple announced that they are releasing the Mini Mac, a $500 computer — the most affordable Mac in the company's history. After 20 years, they are finally back to their original ideas and they are actually making history by building amazing computers and making them affordable for the average user.
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