Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age

I found this an excellent, well-written overview of the history of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Not only are major players and products covered (the Alto, Smalltalk, Alan Kay), but the background and collateral history appears as well (DARPA, Vannevar Bush, J.C. Licklider, The Spacewar article in Rolling Stone). Much like Steven Levy's book Hackers, reading this book makes you feel like an expert, like you were there. Moreover, there is so much context and excitement, one feels compelled to find out more about the secondary characters mentioned. Fortunately, electronic copies of such seminal pieces as the Spacewar article and Bush's "As We May Think" essay are easily found online, making quick diversions into supplemental reading not only of interest, but also possible and highly recommended. That is the real beauty of this book: it provides enough information about other relevant topics without wandering too far down tangential paths. I really felt that I learned a lot by reading this book, and my learning wasn't limited to Xerox PARC.

That said, while there is a strong focus on the early history/founding of PARC, it seems that the more recent history is skimmed over if not omitted. After the rich background I encountered in the book's early chapters, I felt as if things were moving a bit fast in the later ones.

Bottom line: If you are interested in the history of computing then this is a must read book.

I found this book to be an engrossing tale of the personalities and technologies that resided in Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)--some invented there, some developed more fully there, and many only being produced by other companies due to Xerox's short-sightedness. The laser printer, the mouse, windowing systems and overlapping windows, bitmapped graphics, computer processing of video images, the personal computer, Ethernet, email.

Hiltzik does a good job of presenting many faces in a large cast of characters and describing the alliances and clashes within Xerox PARC (and between PARC and the rest of Xerox). Of particular note is the greater detail on the story of Steve Jobs visits to PARC and how they occurred (Xerox was briefly an investor in Apple), in far more detail than has been given elsewhere (e.g., in Levy's Insanely Great).

As someone who has been working in the IT field some time and a keen student of history, I approached this book with some anticipation and curiosity. I am happy to report that not only was the "story" interesting but also very enlightening. The focus of this book is a historical account of the legendary Xerox technology centre called PARC and the people who worked there. The author has done a remarkable job in making the events of interest to the reader but also take you literally inside the organisation and the thought processes driving all manner of decisions.

The story is at once inspring and tragic. Inspiring in that the centre produced some of the most incredible advances in the computing sciences ever seen, but tragic in that many of those advances never saw the light of day (at least not with a Xerox badge on them). Several things come across when reading the book: the collection of people working in the facility were of an extremely high calibre and some of the sharpest minds of the day, they also possessed (in many cases) collossal egos to go with their staggering intellect, Xerox in many cases had neither the foresight nor the wherewithal to bring these great ideas to market and that the inventions coming out of PARC were perhaps too far ahead of their time to be practical in the "real world".

In the end, as in many organisations, internal politics and ego/hubris brought down this fine institution from what it was to what it is today. I guess that was to be expected with the cast of characters involved and the inability of Xerox to understand their work. As an aside, I think the author handled the question of "did Xerox blow it" very fairly and comes across as surprisingly sympathetic to the company. I think this is reasonable, as it's very easy to be wise after the event. I think many other organisations may have acted the same way when confronted with the economic realities of the time coupled with this bleeding edge technology.

In all, I would recommend "Dealers of Lightning" to anyone curious about the history of computer science or technology in general.

Due to his journalistic background, I suppose, each chapter weaves an interesting tale; however, the book doesn't gel as a complete story. The book jumps forward and backward in time so much, it is difficult to follow exactly what happened when. Even worse, we learn of the characters and some of their conflicts, but we never really learn much of their back stories. They never truly become people we can love, hate or relate to in any way. Xerox PARC was a unique environment with obtuse individuals that created wonders, but this book won't give you that story easily, if at all.

Computer history is full of great human drama and not a few myths, none so enduring as the story of Steve Jobs stealing technology from Xeroc PARC. In this absorbing book about the famous research institution, Michael Hiltzik puts his own interpretation on the legacy of PARC. He lets Xerox off the hook from the usual charges that they "blew it" when it came to exploiting the amazing inventions that came out of PARC.

But Hiltzik's book does not focus on the Jobs incident, rather he gives us portraits of the men and women whose talents and vision produced computers that were way ahead of their time. The first group of engineers working for Jack Goldman and George Pake in a warehouse across from Stanford University actually built a computer that acted much like the DEC PDP-10 that they wanted to buy. They were told they couldn't have one because Xerox had purchased rival computer-maker SDS, whose products were decidedly inferior. So the talented team simply built themselves a clone. Later, they followed Alan Kay's dream of a small personal computer and created the Alto, a true personal computer that had a mouse and graphical interface and built-in ethernet-- in 1973! Kay also created the first object-oriented language, Smalltalk, which was perfect for writing user-friendly applications for the Alto.

The number of innovations that came from PARC is truly astonishing, but none of them ever came to market. This book provides some of the answers as to why Xerox did not turn its research into profits. While pouring money into PARC, they were also having problems with their main business, which was leased copiers. The Japanese were making smaller cheaper copiers that were eating into Xerox's business markets and that was a major distraction. Xerox also lacked the means to sell computers. Their salesmen usually dealt with office managers; they knew nothing about computers.

The products created at PARC were marvelous (everyone wanted an Alto once they saw one in operation), but they were created with no thought to marketing. Each Alto was hand-built and would have to be sold for a hefty price. Xerox did sell some to the Carter administration for the government information office, but never set up a factory to build Altos.

The other problem with marketing the products from PARC was the blindness of the company, including its brilliant researchers, toward the revolution happening right outside their door with small computers. Some of their engineers, like Larry Tesler, Charles Simonyi and Bob Metcalf, did see the potential and left for greener pastures (Tesler to Apple, Simonyi to Microsoft, and Metcalf to found 3Com). But as a company, Xerox had no notion that small cheap computers were about to take the market by storm. When they finally incorporated the Alto technology into the Xerox Star, it was too big, too slow, and too expensive. IBM came out with its PC and businesses bought the cheaper product. The author gives too much credit to IBM, however. The microcomputer revolution was already in full swing and it was only the hubris of the ultra talented researchers PARC employed that kept them from seeing that it was the self-taught garage geeks, not PhD scientists with money to burn, who were the true initiators of personal computing.

As for the visit of Steve Jobs, Hiltzik says there were three visits, with progressively more encompassing demonstrations of the Alto-Smalltalk products. He says all of the participants seem to remember it differently, but Jobs has always felt the emphasis on what he learned at Xerox takes away from the talent and vision that already existed at Apple. The author says it was inevitable that Apple would do a better job of selling the public on a graphical interface than a tradition-bound bureaucratic organization like Xerox. It was simply fate that Apple brought out the Lisa and the Macintosh while Xerox brought out the doomed Star.

To learn more about computer history, try Stan Veit's book, Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer, and for the story of the Radio Shack TRS-80, the microcomputer that really introduced the masses to personal computing, read Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution. Another good book that covers the early years is Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer.

I, like another reviewer, came across this book because it was mentioned in the New New Thing. I picked up and read the book because I've long been interested in Xerox PARC, and how it came to be. I was rewarded with an interesting, and seemingly thorough story about the people, motivations, and resources that came together at PARC.
I enjoyed the detail presented in the background material about the people and circumstances that came together to found PARC. There's a lot of good stuff about so many of the seminal minds and ideas that made much of the computing environment that we use today possible. I believe that most of the major breakthrough inventions that came out of PARC are written about, including the background, people, and stories surrounding them. If you are interested in the history of computing and invention, this is wonderful, fascinating stuff.
I expected more material about how and why Xerox missed so many opportunities to capitalize on the inventions created in this extroadinary place. To be fair, however, the story may be as simple as presented. The author also debunks the myth that Xerox didn't reap any reward from inventions that came out of PARC. But woven throughout the text and stories in this book is a case study about innovation within large companies, and how it is actively killed.
Again, I very much enjoyed this book. The stories that I knew little about before reading it are now much more clear. I found the stories fairly presented and free of jargon.

If ever a book was written that shows the destruction of corporate yes men can be to the welfare of a corporation, it is this one. Xerox ruled the roost for a few decades. Xerox could have ruled the roost for decades. It the corporate HQ got out of the way, it just might have, but the yes-men and brown nosers and paranoid execs led Xerox down a path of dismal returns.

In the 60's, Xerox set up a research center that created so much of what we know today-from the mouse to many aspects of programming, both HW and SW. The corporate execs blocked much of the success, including one idiot who refused to let Xerox market a PC with a mouse, because he did not like the mouse.

Apple, Microsoft, DEC and others saw the inventions and like the personnel. The personnel went to Apple, Microsoft and DEC.

It took a while to read, because so many chapters reminded me of execs I have worked for that were paranoid and excellent at saying 'no' but unable to say 'yes.' The demise of those firms have been very similar to the demise of Xerox. Once great, now plodding along in spite of the leadership.

I do not know why this book was never more popular. It is a great read and has lots of detail on the evolution of computer R&D.

It is a very well written and detailed book about the computer R&D from Boston-Washington to Palo Alto at HP - written like a smooth flowing novel. It is mainly about Xerox and the research people and how they eventually decided to move the computer R&D to California. But it includes a lot more stuff. It Includes DARPA funding of the internet and work at MIT, and in house fighting at Xerox, and then the evolution of the projects in California. Xerox did not run with the ball in an effective way post 1980 but the technology and people went on to other companies such as Microsoft, Apple, and HP. Also there was a lot of innovative work that was transferred to industry.

It gives a lot of insight into the evolution of computer systems and the internet and local networks and on and on. It covers the people - grad students, scientists, spin off companies, crazed computer types working all night - that are just as interesting as the wires and machines.

Great book, one of the best ever Tech Books.

This is the question you ask yourself when you first hear the stories of what went on at the fabled Xerox PARC advanced computer research facility in Palo Alto, California during the early 70's. How could a company literally lay the foundations for the entire personal computer industry, sink millions and millions of dollars into a pure research facility, see it create products light years ahead of anything anyone had ever seen before, and then let the whole thing slip through their fingers? It seems impossible that any company, no matter how slow-moving or near-sighted, could behave so stupidly.
And in large part, it is. Author Hiltzik does a great job of dispelling the myth that Xerox totally failed to realize any of the potential of thier problem child in the sun-baked hills of California, as well as painting an epic picture of the group of geniuses and rabble-rousers who railed against the stifling beaurocracy of mothercorp Xerox and developed the basic tenants of the personal computer industry from the whole cloth of their extreme vision. Inter-office politics, as well as animosity from headquarters all play their part in frustrating the efforts of these electronic soothsayers, as well as make the few triumphs to come out of PARC all the more remarkable.
From the first powerful graphics displays and GUI driven interfaces like those featured in the vaunted 1973 Alto PC, to the genius of the Ethernet networking system, to the mechanical marvel of the first laser printers, one is continually astonished by how much of what we now take totally for granted was developed in the early 70's in a research organization whose concept today would be nearly unthinkable. Also intertwined in the PARC story is Apple co-founder Steve Job's now-famous raiding of these priceless treasure out from under the nose of Xerox for use in his own designs.
In the annals of great corporate fumblings and opportunities missed, the tale of PARC and thier incredible acheivements ranks among the most dramatic. This is an accessable and well-written document of it, of how Xerox might have won the world if they hadn't missed the lightning striking again and again right under their noses.

I am a retired electronics engineer whose career spans the period of time covered by this book. i truly enjoyed reading of the accomplishments and foibles of this amazing group of engineers.