Has anyone written a biography of Jack Tramiel?

[+Larry]

I have not been able to find one.  There are a couple of short articles that are quick biographical sketches.  Love him or dispise him, the man had a very interesting and productive life.  And he certainly changed the home computer market immensely.  It would make quite a read!  Probably the best depiction of him that I've read was in Michael Tomczyk's Home Computer Wars.  Incidently, that Compute! book sells used for $113 on Amazon.  Glad I kept my copy! 

[zzip]

There is a documentary called "Business is War"   it's on Youtube

[carlsson]

12 minutes ago, Larry said:

Probably the best depiction of him that I've read was in Michael Tomczyk's Home Computer Wars.

Leonard on the other hand insists it is mostly fiction, and that Jack told him even back in the days. The two (Leonard and Michael) take every opportunity to express in public how they see each other.

[+Larry]

I didn't think of YouTube.  There are a couple of significant videos of Jack there (under "Jack Tramiel").

 

I'd never heard Leonard's comments.

[FifthPlayer]

Check out the book "The Story of Commodore: A Company on the Edge" by Brian Bagnall.  It covers the history of Commodore's 8-bit period from the PET through the C128, and has a lot of Tramiel biographical info.  He's currently at work on a prequel covering the years 1954-1975, which presumably would have even more biographical stuff.  (There are two other books in the series, one covering the history of the Amiga and the last covering Commodore's final years).

[+Larry]

20 hours ago, FifthPlayer said:

Check out the book "The Story of Commodore: A Company on the Edge" by Brian Bagnall.  It covers the history of Commodore's 8-bit period from the PET through the C128, and has a lot of Tramiel biographical info.  He's currently at work on a prequel covering the years 1954-1975, which presumably would have even more biographical stuff.  (There are two other books in the series, one covering the history of the Amiga and the last covering Commodore's final years).

Thanks.  I'm currently reading (on my Kindle app) "Commodore: The Amiga Years."  There was a lot more going on with the Amiga project than I was aware of previously, but Jack had already left Commodore, so not so much about him in that one.  I read "...On the Edge" when it came out some years ago.  I'll have to revisit it.

[devwebcl]

In the documentary Commodore Story (2018), several minutes are dedicated to Jack; in fact, his son Leonard Tramiel also mentions him.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6541512/

 

[+slx]

As a biographical note I recently found him listed as a donor in the entrance hall of the (very impressive and worthwhile) Polin museum on the history of Jews in Poland.

 

Here’s their entry on the museum’s web page.

 

 

[_The Doctor__]

You can thank Helen for that.

Though he certainly did not invent the processor nor was he the father of... wow talk about something needing an edit. They certainly couldn't have meant how this translated.

Edited April 11 by _The Doctor__