Byte (magazine)
| BYTE the small systems journal
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| Area of Expertise | computer |
| language | English |
| First edition | 1975 |
| attitude | 1998 |
The Byte (proper spelling: BYTE; associated signature: the small systems journal ;) was an American computer magazine in the early days of microcomputers and their widespread use.
The magazine found its greatest distribution in the late 1970s and the entire 1980s, its great influence during this time is due to its editorial spectrum, which was not limited to one type of computer technology - as was common with many magazines - but In addition to the home and office use of the then (in Germany ) common MS-DOS PCs and Apple Macintosh computers (less common at the time) , mainframe computers and information-theoretical issues were also dealt with. These topics were often treated theoretically in greater depth and less from the perspective of the user who wanted to solve certain computer problems.
history
The magazine was opened by Wayne Green with the first edition in September 1975 and was created due to the high demand for articles about computers from the radio amateur magazine 73 . The first four issues were still being worked on in the reaction rooms of 73 , from November 1975 the editors looked for disagreements with the founder Wayne Green , which became official with the issue in February 1976. Between “Byte Publications” and “73 Inc.” - the two publishing companies - there was also a protracted guerrilla war because of the separation.
The byte makers later succeeded in quickly winning large numbers of advertisers and well-known authors. The early editions contained numerous do-it-yourself projects for in-depth hardware and software solutions. The magazine became known through regular columns by authors such as Steve Ciarcia . Noteworthy in this period were items to "Kansas City" mentioned Standard for storing information on tape, the publication of programs in Tiny C , BASIC and assembler as well as a detailed report on the then current operating system CP / M . The first advertisement from a company called " Micro-Soft " appeared in Byte, which advertised a BASIC interpreter for computers with Intel's 8080 CPU , which was new at the time .
In the spring of 1979, the owner Virginia Williamson sold the magazine to the specialist publisher McGraw-Hill . However, she remained editor and vice president of McGraw-Hill until 1983.
After the first IBM PC was released on the market in 1981 , the byte makers changed their release policy. The do-it-yourself articles of the early days were pushed back and replaced by product overviews and tests. Byte was thus a pioneer among computer magazines. A broad view of the “entire” home computer scene was retained, which was typically financially feasible for private individuals. However, the focus now was on the question of how solutions worked and no longer how users could recreate them themselves.
In the early 1980s, Byte played in a league with magazines like Rolling Stone and Playboy, and encouraged competitors like PC Magazine to copy his strategy for success. In 1981, Byte was the only computer title in Folio's top 400 list . In 1982 Byte's editions, averaging 543 pages, were more than any other magazine. The magazine achieved a circulation of 420,000 copies per issue, making it the third largest of all computer magazines.
Until 1986 the title design was done by Robert Tinney, who gave the magazine its own aesthetic. From 1987 onwards, Byte adjusted to the competition in this area by replacing the artistic title graphics with more conventional images of tested products.
| BYTE (online edition)
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|---|---|
| Area of Expertise | computer |
| language | English |
| First edition | 1999 |
| attitude | 2009 |
| BYTE: Consumer Technology in Business
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| Area of Expertise | computer |
| language | English |
| First edition | 2011 |
| attitude | 2013 |
Until the 1990s the magazine was published monthly, had a length of up to 1000 pages and was known for its in-depth technical tests. The American paper edition was discontinued after a change of ownership in July 1998. An online edition was published from 1999 to 2009 , which was revived in July 2011 and then discontinued in 2013 with the name "BYTE: Consumer Technology in Business".
Web links
- HomeLib (English) - online archive of previous editions
- ExoticA (English) - Alternative online archive of previous editions
Single receipts
- ↑ BYTE Magazine (English) - Overview of all published paper editions at the so-called Internet Archive (accessed on March 15, 2019)
- ↑ a b Byte Magazine (English) - the first printed edition, from Internet Archive (accessed March 15, 2019)
- ↑ Gates: How the Microsoft boss revolutionized the PC industry and became America's richest man - excerpts from Google Books ; written by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews , published in 1993 by Addison-Wesley- Verlag, on 473 pages; u. a. also on page 97 with "Micro-Soft"
- ↑ BYTE: Consumer Technology in Business ( Memento from September 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ); Language: English - last known (or saved in the so-called web archive ) edition