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Summary: Making of DirectX
Review: DirectX is the software component in Windows 95 (and later versions of Windows) that helps developers build graphics applications. This book beatifully describes the happenings in Microsoft which culminate in DirectX being a component of the operating system. The heroes are three Microsofties, nicknamed the Beastie Boys for their aggressive tactics in getting things done. The book is also a story of these three engineers and in particular about Alex St John. Evangelism to push software to customers, elaborate marketing stunts to introduce software, interactions with Apple and other companies during those times, the anti-trust case, are some of the really interesting parts of the book. Throughout the book, one gets to appreciate the creative spirit and thirst for better software that drives the engineers. Not only does the book shed light on the psyche of the software engineers involved, it creates an image of what its like within the walls of the software behemoth. Anyone interested in programming will certainly find this book extremely enjoyable and will readily relate to the cause pursued by the programmers in question. If you are not a programmer, you might find it a wee bit uninteresting at places. I would specially recommend this book to anyone who has done programming with OpenGL or any other graphics library. This book will be a work of history for people into graphics and gaming.
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Summary: Pass on this One
Review: If you want to read a book on the egotistical founders of DirectX and Chrome and learn how NOT to manage a technology and your employees then this book is for you. They just happened to be at the right place at the right time and rode the msft wave. Save your money.
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Summary: An unexpected good story of inside Microsoft
Review: Michael Drummond takes us on an unbiased look inside Microsoft, not from the perspective of its battles with competitors, but its own internal political structure. Unlike the many books on the "browser" wars, or the anti-trust battles, this one shows the development of two products - DirectX and Chrome. DirectX changed how games were made, giving Windows a leg up as a game platform. Chrome was the cutting edge technology that Microsoft hoped would jazz up the Internet and compell people to view it exclusively on Wintel machines. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is interested in computers and technology. It was a refreshing change of pace from the other books trying to analyse the Microsoft mystique.
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Summary: A Must-Read For Anyone Who's Ever Used DirectX
Review: This book is a fascinating read, especially for anyone in the fast-growing and ultra-competitive computer game industry. If you've ever used DirectX, you owe it to yourself to buy this book. It's all here: the creation of the wildly successful DirectX software platform; the humiliating WinG fiasco; Alex St. John's outrageous publicity stunts to promote DirectX (including the crisis with the cancelled alien spacecraft, or when he convinced several game industry executives to streak through Seattle GameWorks); the obnoxious coders who began the OpenGL wars; and St. John's raucous but ultimately career-limiting final letter to Gates & Co. Although the book reads at times like an Alex St. John biography, the book's mix of wild stunts, software eccentrics, and high technology is enough to keep any reader thoroughly entertained. Perhaps the most astonishing and terrifying revelation of all is how long it took Microsoft to take the multi-billion-dollar computer game industry seriously, even after the conception of DirectX . . . a mistake the company surely won't make again.
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