Well written and organized covering the development of the software industry in a logical process - especially if you are already familiar with the underlying hardware from the 50's thru the early 90's. The books largest flaw is how it totally ignores Microsoft's marketing practices to control the PC hardware manufacturers. MS used DOS as a lever to dictate software bundling on new machines. On server software, MS used bundling with low prices to beat down the competition on products like Office.
In fairness the book stops in the early 90's and thus does not consider the impact of the Internet even though the publication date is 2003. ( )

This is an excellent book on the history of the software industry, of value now even though it only just covers up to the opening years of the 21st Century. For anyone whose perspective on software has been through the eye of a consumer, or the production of software in a research context, it is likely to be an eye-opener. Campell-Kelly's work really brings to life the dominance of the commercial market for accountancy systems, inventory control and the like in the history of software revenue and development. He tracks the shift from a diverse world of standalone applications to the increased dominance of integrated software systems, and the extent to which those systems affected how businesses worked. He doesn't ignore the growth of the personal computer market, but sets it in the wider context which it deserves.

This is well-researched, with notes for each chapter which provide evidence, further reading and links to alternative views. Highly recommended. ( )

This is not the history of software I'd choose to read, but it's better than nothing, and the alternative does appear to be precisely nothing.

It's a business oriented history, with all that implies.
While worthile for at least giving me some feeling for how we got to where we are today (and how companies like SAP and Oracle fit into things), it was very disappointing wrt technology.
I still want to see a history of software written by someone who actually writes software, and thus concentrating on tech details; who knows when that will arrive? ( )

Reviewed on Computing Reviews.