Comments on: Expand your knowledge – Subscribe to Byte (May, 1980)

By: John Savard

John Savard — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:35:10 +0000

It was the January 1980 issue of BYTE. The computer was announcing “Madam: Dinner is Served”.

In front of the computer was a champagne glass, a string of pearls, white gloves, and what appears to be a remote control unit rather than a cellphone.

The theme of the cover was “Domesticated Computers”.

The computer on the cover vaguely resembles a Radio Shack Model II, but is clearly different.

The computer in the ad indeed looks like a Heathkit H89, but its disk drive was different from the one into which the magazine is being placed.

By: Casandro

Casandro — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:15:34 +0000

It’s CP/M of course. The standard OS for such small systems.

By: Toronto

Toronto — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:44:47 +0000

I especially like the wood grain on the 8″ floppy drive. Odds are it was “pecan.”

By: GaryM

GaryM — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:21:44 +0000

That definitely couldn’t have been MS-DOS. Look carefully at the screen and you’ll see the dates are in 1979. And the drive is an 8″ floppy — you could almost fit a standard magazine page into it, though it probably wouldn’t work after that.

By: JMyint

JMyint — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:15:19 +0000

I think that’s CP/M not DOS. Development of MS-DOS didn’t begin begin until 1981 after Microsoft bought the exclusive rights to Q-DOS. My college computer class had all brand new Heath H89′s running CP/M and the picture in the ad reminds me of those Heath computers.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:41:40 +0000

“I miss Byte so much! When it was eventually taken over I was promised a replacement subscription to another magazine, but it never appeared.”

I was subscribing at the time also. They finished out my subscription with PC Magazine.

By: katey

katey — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:46:07 +0000

What is going on in that magazine cover? A champagne coupe, a string of pearls, and some kind of proto-cellphone?

By: rick

rick — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:14:22 +0000

All the excited prose about personal computers in the ad, then the monitor showing columns of text and figures . . . makes me want to rush right out and drop about 5 Gs on one of those machines. Ah, the good old days of MS DOS!

Rick

By: Casandro

Casandro — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:48:39 +0000

Ohh the dates on the ‘releated posts’ are wrong.

By: Casandro

Casandro — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:47:45 +0000

Actually one german magazine used to have something called the “Paperdisk”. It was a printed pattern you could scan and get software out of it. I think it was MC.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:00:01 +0000

I miss Byte so much! When it was eventually taken over I was promised a replacement subscription to another magazine, but it never appeared. It was by far the best computer magazine I’ve ever read.