Triumph of the Nerds

This is a story of few very talented people working from their garage launching a mega billion dollar empire. The grass roots development of personal computers in the '70s and '80s are captured in this excellent program. From the development of Altair 8800, Apple II, and launching of Microsoft to the IBM PC, bringing about the change we know today as computer revolution, this program details the early history of personal computer development from an insider's view. All major historical events concerning the early computer revolution is treated fairly and in an unbiased way making this an excellent documentary on history of personal computer development, but it is also presented in a entertaining way that even an average couch potato can enjoy. The major players are all there and there are many good personal interviews which brings insights as to how the event really took place. A priceless piece of computer history in a three hour program.

I call "The Triumph of the Nerds" the best PC history documentary ever made. They talk about everything from your first home built PC, up to the Internet. Along with the people explaining everything were the people who actually had a big part in creating some of this stuff; Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and even the founder of Oracle Larry Ellison.

The only thing I don't like about this is that they still haven't made a decade later version that was promised in the documentary. I would have liked to see some of this compared to what's happening now. Something I would have liked to seen because several of Larry Ellison's comments are coming to life.

No matter what anyone says, this is truly where a great amount your personal electronics did originate.

The production of the PBS miniseries "Triumph of the Nerds" as documented by journalist and self professed gossip columnist Robert Cringely is a campy trek through the personal computer revolution. The 3-hour narrative covered many of the notable characters responsible for the PC's development such as the inventive geeks, aspiring college hackers, social radicals, corporate marketeers, and leading up to the inevitable war of wills to bring about global, political, and economic change. The miniseries is as much about the personal computer revolution as it is about the one-upmanship ideology of bringing a better mouse trap to market. Piracy is deemed a good thing by the very players that use corporate legal methods to protect themselves from that very end. By means of reverse engineering, misapplications of patent rights, cleverly worded legal disclosure documents, so called `Virgin' engineers and outright theft of intellectual property; it is a sordid affair indeed. The story reads like a checklist in the PDA of Machiavelli's `The Prince'. It seems that `The Prince' is alive and well in the 21st Century.

I would highly recommend this film to any geek or geek-in-training.

Look also for "The Pirate's of Silicon Valley"

Journalist Robert Cringley's 3-hour saga of the personal computer is a sprawling, gutsy masterpiece that tells it like it is, presenting for viewer approval(or disapproval)the characters, places and anecdotes that are part of the birth, growing pains and refinement of "that damn box", as some folks might call it. It's all there: software, hardware, geeks, nerds, money, power, ambition, hunger, anxiety. Highly recommended viewing, without a doubt.

I found these clips on YouTube, it's a 3-part documentary about the rise of computers/internet from about 1976 to 1996. Definitely worth seeing if you're from this era and still want to know more about it. All the great names pass by, like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc... The documentary is made by Robert Cringely, a sort of "insider" to the whole booming of silicon valley. He deliver's a lot of accurate information, in my opinion, with a bit of humor here and there. So it's also fun to watch as well. And seeing as computers and the internet are the best things to come along since sliced bread, this is a MUST SEE! ;-)