Films about Personal Computing

If you want to know more about how the personal computing started, you can read it all from the Computer History Museum's Personal Computing Timeline. That's the best way for a jumpstart. Personal computing changed how mankind conduct day-to-day activities. It seems that people these days now have the power to communicate with almost anyone on Earth. Before the era of personal computing, only huge corporations have machines that make their jobs easier. Thanks to a lot of innovators like Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman who brought these new civilization we are experiencing.

Here, I'm gonna list 3 films that will give you the best idea of how personal computing started and evolved.

1. Pirates of Silicon Valley - It is a movie about how Steve Jobs and Bill Gates started Apple Computers and Microsoft Corporation respectively. The movie points out a very significant detail that the innovation of personal computing was made possible through "piracy". That's where the title of the movie came from. It's not about the literal meaning of stealing tangible things but the imitation of ideas to create better stuffs. Geeks call it as "hacking". Steve Jobs hacked the idea of some Xerox researchers. Xerox researchers were able to make one of the first "mouse". Steve then took the idea and implemented it in one of Apple's products. On the other hand, Bill Gates took the idea about the "mouse" from Apple and putted it to work with one of their products.

   

   Courtesy of Turner Network Television
   This is the front cover image of the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley 

2. Revolution OS - A documentary film about the Free Software Movement, Open Source initiative and the proprietary flags of Microsoft and Apple. The film depicts the story about how software should have appropriate licensing and distribution. Many geeks believe that to some extent, software should be free while making others proprietary.

   

   Courtesy of Wonderview Productions
   This is the front cover image of the documentary film Revolution OS

3. Jobs - It is a movie about Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computers. Like the Pirates of Silicon Valley, the movie also depicts the journey of Steve Jobs in making Apple Computers became one of the most successful companies in the personal computing industry.

   

   Courtesy of  Open Road Films
   This is the front cover image of the movie Jobs

Today, personal computing is on the verge of evolution. In the next decade or generation, personal computing will turn into wearable computing.