30 years of PCWorld, 30 pivotal moments in PC history

[Night Hawk]

30 years of PCWorld, 30 pivotal moments in PC history

Loyd Case @loydcase
Mar 4, 2013 3:01 AM

Talk about longevity. Thirty years ago to this month, PCWorld published its very first print issue, a 310-page magazine loaded with essential news, reviews, and features about IBM PCs and compatible "clones."

The content inside the March 1983 issue of PC World was exceedingly quaint—even borderline comical, as the images in our accompanying slideshow prove. But once you take stock of PCWorld's entire 30-year history, you begin to develop a profound appreciation for just how dramatically the PC platform has evolved—and how it has influenced the greater world of consumer electronics, from music players to smartphones to any device that's connected to the Internet and geared toward social sharing.

We commemorate PCWorld's 30-year history with a trip down memory lane, calling out the most pivotal PC-related events and product releases that occurred in each calendar year from 1983 to 2012. Keep in mind that these aren't necessarily the 30 most important PC landmarks of the last 30 years, but rather the biggest highlights in each individual year.

Think we missed something critically important? Let us know in the comments section below!

see full report

 

[Lee]

Back in the 80s and 90's this was my open window on what was happening in the computer world; this and Macworld.

 

[x BlueRobot]

If they were confused about the Start Menu with release of Windows 95, then they should see and use Windows 8

 

[richnrockville]

FWIW: I believe that PC-World was started by the staff that left the original PC-Magazine when Ziff Davis bought it and the top level staff departed en-mass..

I was a friend of Andrew Fluegelman (author of PC-Talk) who was one of the first editors of PC-World and came from PC-Mag..

rich

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
I think there is ONE serious omission with these articles -- IBM of course started the whole PC but they had the OS embedded into the BIOS and copyrighted it. The Bios also had an embedded Basic interpreter and the machine didn't actually need disks --these came later.

It was only when alternatives like Ms DOS appeared that didn't need parts of the "Protected IBM BIOS" that development of things like Windows could continue -- and who at that time noted a small "Upstart company" called Microsoft.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Night Hawk]

What this article excludes is what was seen one year earlier about notebooks namely the Epson HX-20 microcassette or ROM driven notebook where you manually entered the programming yourself in order to run anything! You had to learn basic programming just to use a portable unit with a small lcd screen which was more like an oversized calculator with keyboard and plugin components. You could still print with the module you plugged in for the ticker tape type cash register size paper roll used. Epson HX-20 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But it was Steve Jobs who first developed the personal pc concept while it was BG that worked out the OS side of things. Apple II series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia That was back in 1977 for the start of the Fruit company over 30yrs. in retrospect.

IBM brought in a bit more then the business machine of the 50s having started in 1911 as a calculator company under a few other corporate names. Computing Tabulating Recording Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That was the result of four companies previously started back in the 19th century that ended up merging together. Weighing scales and other measuring equipment gathered together to form one large corporation that would continue to grow over time during the 20th century.

As far as the transition from Win 3.1, 3.11 to 95 you were no longer seeing a dos application started up by typing the "win" command at the dos prompt but a new 16bit shell that automatically started up on it's own. The Start menu>Programs unified the experienced rather then entering the program's executable name and location on the old command line seen with the 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 3.x main menu bar. You still saw desktop shortcuts in 3.x but had to manually create each one as you went along.

For the changes in Win8 on the other hand MS decided to swap out the desktop gui prevalent in Windows since 95 to see that replaced with the new Windows RT Surface Tablet touch and swipe type gui trying to make 8 look nice with all looking the same without regard for the differences in OS platforms. Most are looking at that type of change as a royal blonder on MS's part unless trading off by installing a 3rd part app to get around that type of change.

 

[Carl29]

I did not realise it had been going for 30 years.