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Up Front: The First 20 Years of PC World

Much has changed since this magazine's founding, but not its mission or soul.

Kevin McKean

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When the editors first sat down to plan this 20th-anniversary edition, we agreed it should not be too self-congratulatory. Anniversary or not, we felt you would still want the latest information on great technology, not chest-thumping essays on the PC's history or foggy guesses concerning its future.

So, we're celebrating with an issue that delivers the same great value you expect from PC World, though we couldn't quite resist the "20" theme of several major stories (see, for example, "20 Things You Didn't Know Your PC Could Do").

Before you get started, though, please forgive me for recounting a few of the facts about how PC World came to be.

The story begins with a boyish entrepreneur named David Bunnell, who had written manuals for the Altair 8080--the first truly personal computer--and had edited books for Adam Osborne, creator of the first "transportable" computer. "The revelation at Osborne," recalls Bunnell, "was that you could sell more books if they applied to a specific machine--not just 'How to Program in Basic,' but 'Basic for the Apple II.'" When IBM brought out its PC in 1981, Bunnell saw an opportunity for a single-machine magazine. He raised the money, hired a youthful staff, and published the first issue in 1982.

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