In the 1980s, there wasn't much of an Internet to speak of so you got pretty much all of your computer related info from magazines. Hence the large size of what was probably the most popular PC specific magazine with this one coming it at about 400 pages. Contents for the June 1988 issue includes:
Review
LAN Servers for Less - Using cheaper general purpose 386 machines including the Dell 386 and Blackship 386 as file servers vs. machines designed for the task including the Novell Server 386A and Compaq 386. It turns out the cheaper machines performed just as well.
Share the Wealth! - A review of three multiuser databases including Advanced Revelation, Paradox 2.01, and R:base for DOS.
Hard Disk Housekeepers - A comparison of the defragmentation aspect of several utilities including Disk Optimizer, DS Optimize, FastTrax, Vopt, The Norton Utilities Advanced Edition, and The Mace Utilities.
The Hardware Shelf - Reviews of Hewlett Packard's DeskJet (inkjet printer), Intel's Inboard 386/PC and Quad 386/XT (both $995 386 accelerators for IBM PC or XT machines), Key Tronic KB 5153 touchpad keyboard (a keyboard with a built-in touchpad), and the CumulusRAM-2 multifunction board for the PS/2 (adds a modem or I/O ports and 2MB to 6MB of RAM).
The Software Shelf - Reviews of Surpass 1.0 (spreadsheet), QuickBASIC 4.0, Publisher's Paintbrush 1.5, Micrografx Designer 1.1, and Dave 1.1 (creates data entry forms for Lotus 1-2-3).
Top of the News - Dell and Tandy announce PS/2 compatible machines with MCA bus; Ashton-Tate to enter spreadsheet battle; Compaq plans PC based on new 25-MHz 386 chip...for under $10k; AST logs record sales; Maxtor and Verbatim to release erasable optical drives; Sun announces family of high-end PCs including the Sun386i/250 and Sun386i/150; and more.
David Bunnell - On the Apple and Microsoft battle over the GUI.
Letters - Letters from readers about IBM, the Hayes Smartmodem III, SQL, the PS/2 and OS/2, and more.
Richard Landry - Integrated software packages as a cheaper alternative to OS/2.
Stewart Alsop - Struggles with network administration.
On IBM - The upcoming release of OS/2 Extended Edition 1.0 and IBM's PS/2 strategy.
Industry Outlook - Apple's lawsuit attacking Microsoft Windows and HP's NewWave; the growth of presentation software; AT&T revamps computer line; and more.
Preview - A look at Dell's new PC line-up including the 8088-based System 100, 80386-based System 310, and 80286-based System 200. Dell was the 7th largest PC maker at this time.
Product Outlook - A look at new products including Beyond Fax (a fax card for your PC), ARC 6500 and 7000 (tape backup), MicroFrame 386 (386 motherboard upgrade for AT machines), AdLANtes (a LAN for DOS), and more.
Briefly Noted - A brief look at Time Line 3.0 (creates PERT an Gantt charts), 3+Mail for the Mac, Zoomtext (TSR for magnifying characters), and more.
Match Wits With PC World - The results of an advanced users' quiz from a previous issue, along with the answers.
Consumer Watch - The changing nature of technical support.
The Help Screen - Questions answered about finding a BIOS upgrade for an original IBM PC for hard drive support, formatting 720K disks under DOS 3.30, specifying data file location for Metro, disk buffers in DOS, and more.
Tech Notes - The hype of hypertext. Little did they know...
Another Angle - Are PCs the ultimate office productivity tool or is PC productivity a contradiction?
Closer to the Promised LAN? - OS/2 promises to revolutionize networking on PCs. Up to this point, most PC networking was done through DOS which was less than ideal.
How To
WordPerfect Macros From A to Z - A guide to creating 26 macros that make WordPerfect easier to use.
