The Golden Age of InfoWorld Covers, 1984-1985
Return with us now to the days when Radio Shack was a PC giant, Apple was on the ropes, and people thought laptops were a foolish fad.Posted by Harry McCracken | Wednesday, February 3, 2010
“Tramiel Moves In: Can He Save Atari?”
I always think of Commodore founder Jack Tramiel with a cigar in his hand, but in this cover photo he’s tobacco-free and full of steely determination. Tramiel had just taken over ailing Atari, and the story is devoted to figuring out his intentions. He ended up installing his sons in key management positions and releasing cheap Maclike PCs nicknamed “Jackintoshes.” The Tramiel era lasted for a dozen increasingly irrelevant years.
The intriguing cover line about an Epson computer working like a PC and a Mac turns out to refer to a piece on the company’s 8-bit QX-10 computer; InfoWorld said its Valpaint and Valdraw apps were reminiscent of Apple programs.
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I Love the Eighties! Says:
February 3rd, 2010 at 2:57 am[…] View The Golden Age of InfoWorld Covers slide show. […]
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And That’s What You Missed on Technologizer Says:
December 31st, 2010 at 12:34 pm[…] I took a look back at tech of the early 1980s, in the form of old InfoWorld covers. […]
February 3rd, 2010 at 8:42 am
Cool. As I recall, Apple was actually more profitable after Steve Jobs left. It didn’t last long though. 🙂
February 3rd, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Love the sidebar on #9 – it says “Businesses can buy software electronically.” And that was news then!
February 4th, 2010 at 8:50 am
But the Google Books collection only seems to go back to late 1986. What about the 1981-1986 issues? Are they adding gradually? Or should I help them out with my back-issue collection?
June 29th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
I remember your writing Michael!
February 5th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
These were from the later period of Infoworld for me. When I first subscribed it was more of a tabloid style with a newspaper-style cover. Anybody could get a subscription for free if you said you were a business. Every issue was worth reading if for nothing else John Dvorak’s column. Before he was a podcast cramugin he was the go-to guy for tech scoops. Albeit, he pretty much had that field to himself back then.