Noted systems developer, Lars Nielsen reveals the dynamic combination of innovation, competition and, often eccentric, entrepreneurship that went to shape today's tech landscape.

From the military's ENIAC of 1946 to the ripening of the Web and e-commerce, Nielsen's Computing: A Business History details the evolution of computing as it has impacted the models and practices of markets and professional services around the globe. Nielsen explains not only the development of technologies, but the ongoing saga of strategic rivalries between such tech firms as IBM, Cisco, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook.

He surveys the rise and fall of companies and platforms from the early days of the mainframe when the likes of Sperry Rand and DEC laid unsuccessful siege to IBM's market-share, through the era of Windows vs. Mac and beyond.

And he vividly depicts? the brilliant, but often rapacious, personalities behind the competition that shaped the business computing environment we know today.