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Rating: 
Summary: Truly awful
Review: I picked this book up and I think that it is very good. I started reading it right after finishing up a book on Linus Torvalds the creator of Linux. Thus this is almost the flip side of that coin, showing how Microsoft became. One thing that surprised me was that Bill Gates was not one of the main focuses of this particular book, though he is mentioned quite frequently. Rather it shows some of the others responsible for possibly the most successful computer company ever. This is not all just programmers either, but a good selection of people from various different aspects of the microsoft realm.
Rating: 
Summary: Does what it says
Review: I picked this book up and I think that it is very good. I started reading it right after finishing up a book on Linus Torvalds the creator of Linux. Thus this is almost the flip side of that coin, showing how Microsoft became. One thing that surprised me was that Bill Gates was not one of the main focuses of this particular book, though he is mentioned quite frequently. Rather it shows some of the others responsible for possibly the most successful computer company ever. This is not all just programmers either, but a good selection of people from various different aspects of the microsoft realm.
Rating:
Summary: Truly awful
Review: It is such a shame. Imagine a party where everyone is telling the best reditions (often exaggerated) of their life choices and career path. These party goes will be slapping each other on the back for their good judgement, their luck, their brilliance. They are unlikely to tell the truth such that you would ever use the story as a basis for your own decision making. The story is also unlikely to provide access into what actually happened so that you get a sense of being there or give lessons to repeat it. Record these stories at your next party. Transcribe them. Publish as a book.
Rating: 
Summary: not up to the mark
Review: Just another book. Nothing special. As the name suggests, I wanted to have a look into the way these first guys faced compitition. That is missing. The stories lack in detail. Also its does not cover the complete Diaspora of the kind of people working at Microsoft.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Retirement Blues!
Review: The experience these people described is eerily familiar. Ms. Tsang does an excellent job of staying out of the way to let them tell their stories in their own words. Much of what I read about Microsoft comes from people who haven't experienced the reality of it or who guessed at the motives of people involved. I'd love to see about twenty more people profiled. There are a huge number of stories from the early years that should be told.The book is like entering a time warp for me, and reentering a very special time. Realize that almost EVERYONE was working longer, harder, and more effectively than they ever thought possible, almost from day one. The result is one amazing company. The force of Steve Ballmer with individuals is underscored in the various profiles: He's a force for good, but often brutal. The importance of the committed Microsoft experience to the profiled individuals' lives is clear. The consumptive fire of the early years burned out many, which many divorced spouses and alienated families will testify. This experience was very much like going off to war. Few people even knew what stock options were. Few had high starting salaries. Most were there for the love of software, the pc, the early mac; for the love of a growing underdog industry; for the love of competition, going up against IBM, Novell, Borland, Wordperfect, Ashton-Tate; for the love of their team, their project. All good people who did good work. Microsoft made work pure and unadulterated. Meetings were rare. Get a contract, set a deadline. Do the work. Stay up night and day until it's done. Do the best you really can. Don't whine. Ship it. A simple life really, but extraordinarily demanding. It seemed like half the people were from Harvard, half from MIT, and half from Xerox Parc. Smart people who worked hard. That's the simple secret. Get enough of them together and you've got critical mass. As things grew they became different. Easier, but more indirect, more bureaucratic, more social, more market-driven. The spoils of war get fought over. Eventually Bill, who is obviously very smart (but a lot more like one of the three smartest guys in high school than God) became **BILL GATES, THE RICHEST SMARTEST MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE UNIVERSE, LET US ALL BOW AND PRAISE CAESAR**. Then came the stories that read like this: "With $90 billion dollars, Bill Gates could buy the entire continent of Africa, and still have money left over to fill up the Grand Canyon with silver dollars." So the measurement in dollars became the thing, and not the thing itself. Microsoft is a nice wonderfully pure monopoly. The early hard work has paid off big time for stockholders. And the VAST amount of high-quality, professionally produced software is a MONSTROUS good for society. Some companies were crushed by Microsoft in the business arena. They're the business victims. The human victims are the families of those who worked so hard. When you're at war, you're not home with the wife and kids. Better to have been single at the time.
Rating:
Summary: First Generation: A wonderful example to today's society.
Review: Tsang's book, Microsoft: First Generation, display's a great example to today's society, and generation. The book focuses on 12 key members of Microsoft in it's earliest stages, which, in a way, helped create the infrastructure of the company. The interviews show how all 12 ex-ms employees ended up where they were, and what it took to be successful. I applaud Mrs. Tsang for her hard work. I recommend this book to anyone interested in business, or Microsoft itself.
Rating:
Summary: Dull...
Review: Unfortunately, this book simply isn't very well written... it reads like an 8th grader's English homework. The interviewees don't really shed any light on Microsoft, and their stories are so lacking in detail as to be pointless. Read "Gates" for a far better treatment of the topic.
Rating:
Summary: Dull...
Review: Unfortunately, this book simply isn't very well written... it reads like an 8th grader's English homework. The interviewees don't really shed any light on Microsoft, and their stories are so lacking in detail as to be pointless. Read "Gates" for a far better treatment of the topic.
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