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PCWorld Magazine Is No More
harrymcc writes "After slightly more than 30 years, PCWorld — one of the most successful computer magazines of all time — is discontinuing print publication. It was the last general-interest magazine for PC users, so it really is the end of an era. Over at TIME, I paused to reflect upon the end of the once-booming category, in part as a former editor at PCWorld, but mostly as a guy who really, really loved to read computer magazines."
Good riddance to it I say!
Ah, but in the early days, the ads were the best part. I rarely even bothered to read the articles. When each issue arrived, I would open it up to the cheap yellow "tombstone" ads near the back. You could run an ad there for $100/month. There was always some fascinating new gizmo that some guy was making in his garage and advertising there. After a month or two, most of the products disappeared, but some of them grew into successful startups. Reading those ads was like watching the history of technology unfold.
I remember getting 3.5" floppies loaded with great stuff. Amazing to me that there was so much fun to be had on 1.44MBs. I loved the Doom shareware demo and it led to a sale of the full game. The "economics of FREE" in action.
Why can't we go back to using jumpers to configure slot adapter cards? Why? I say!
I remember in the early days when they weren't "bought" like PCMag. But eventually they succumbed. I distinctly recall the day when the worst version of Norton in history won when it slowed your PC down by half the moment you installed it. It was accompanied by Norton ads all over the magazine (back cover, centerfold, inside front cover). I knew then that it was bought for sure.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Or they could be browsing the internet on a PC. They could even buy a cheap tablet with wifi access to carry into their bathroom so they could read from more useful resources than an ad-filled magazine even while they relieve themselves. The reason that PC magazines died off is because they are an absolutely outdated medium, not because the people who would read them are now hipsters.
Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
Completely agree - I fondly remember picking up Computer Shopper to see what the best deals were for buying cheap memory, hard drives, etc. Zines like Byte and PCWorld were ok for general purpose reading, but Dr Dobbs was one of my favs for programming. Along with 2600 and Phrack for stuff on the fringes.
Thanks for the memories - I hate to say it, but today's tech is nowhere as exciting as those wild-west days were. I feel privileged to have been part of that.
Now get off my lawn!