2600: The Hacker Quarterly
Shares rank 7 of 11 magazines by recommenders
Long-running print hacker magazine that some readers credit with shaping their lives. Critics say it feels dated and many articles are not relevant to them.
Long-running print hacker magazine that some readers credit with shaping their lives. Critics say it feels dated and many articles are not relevant to them.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 73%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Content feels dated compared to past
“definitely not quite what it was decades ago”
Comment from 9 Aug 2026 in “The Hacker's Renaissance” “2600 is locked into a format that was relevant 30-40 years ago and is nearly irrelevant today.”
Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “Paged Out Issue #8 [pdf]”
Other magazines people recommend
The four most recommended other magazines, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Byte magazine | 49 | 4 | 92% | 8 | 40 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Paged Out | 46 | 7 | 87% | 6 | — | Approved |
| The New Yorker | 26 | 10 | 72% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Dr. Dobb's Journal | 14 | 1 | 93% | 4 | — | Approved |
| 2600: The Hacker QuarterlyThis page | 8 | 3 | 73% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
8 of the 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“2600.com took a whhile to load and gbppr does not have a valid certificate or whatever.”
“definitely not quite what it was decades ago”
“way less annoying editor than 2600”
“They'd probably be interested even if it was an overview of the project.”
“Printed stuff really shaped my life.”
“2600 is locked into a format that was relevant 30-40 years ago and is nearly irrelevant today.”
“I like it but there's a lot of articles that I don't really care about.”
“I would reccomend trying to find a local hacker club like defcon or 2600.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.