Byte magazine
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 11 magazines
Recommended for wide, deep computing coverage that taught readers programming; back issues are free online. Critics say later issues were thick with ads.
Recommended for wide, deep computing coverage that taught readers programming; back issues are free online. Critics say later issues were thick with ads.
53 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 49
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 92%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 40 years
Median of the 4 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 49 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 12 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 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.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Taught programming and computing concepts
“As a way of teaching a teenager about the full range of computer technology from the Cambridge Active Badge through to Big Data, it was and is unmatched.”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Byte magazine artist Robert Tinney, who illustrated the birth of PCs, dies at 78” “BYTE was huge to me, it was my first real foray into cross-platform/multi-discipline software development”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975” “I learned a huge amount: object-oriented programming, this new thing called the Internet”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975” - Comment from 25 May 2026 in “Greg Brockman: Inside the 72 Hours That Almost Killed OpenAI”
- Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975”
- Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975”
- Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “The Early History of Smalltalk (1993)”
Free archive of back issues online
“this seems a lot more reasonable than the 168GB torrent available from IA, which I was halfway through downloading”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975” “a huge back catalog of Byte magazine with all kinds of amazing articles”
Comment from 21 Oct 2026 on Hacker News “I've downloaded the entire thing a while back for nostalgia sake.”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975” - Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975”
- Comment from 2 Sep 2026 in “Commodore 64 released September 1, 1982”
- Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975”
Wide coverage across platforms and topics
“Byte was a favorite for me (at the time I was in high school) because it covered things that platform specific mags didn't.”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975” “It became just another MS-DOS rag. In the early days it covered EVERYTHING, all ISAs, all programming languages”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975” “windows into the larger world of computers”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Stewart Cheifet, creator of The Computer Chronicles, dead at 87” - Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Byte magazine artist Robert Tinney, who illustrated the birth of PCs, dies at 78”
Ads showed available hardware and software
“The ads weren't annoying, they were the whole point, even more so than the articles themselves!”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975” “Those ads were the only way to actually know what software and hardware was available to buy”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Too much advertising, ads dominated
“The ads weren't annoying, they were the whole point, even more so than the articles themselves!”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975” “it became THICK, but not informative - where there was just so much advertising”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975” “The amount of ads are insane.”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975” - Comment from 13 May 2026 in “S-100 Virtual Workbench”
Became commercial and less technical
“It became just another MS-DOS rag. In the early days it covered EVERYTHING, all ISAs, all programming languages”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975” “Byte always seemed more commercially orientated than hobbyist, but I would buy and read it all the same.”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975” “BYTE started as a user manual and ended its existence as a catalog of things with user manuals.”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975” - Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “A Few Good Magazines From the 70s and 80s”
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 magazineThis page | 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 |
| Delayed Gratification magazine | 11 | 3 | 79% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 61 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the Byte articles explained things that made sense if you already knew them but didn't help you learn in the first place”
“a huge back catalog of Byte magazine with all kinds of amazing articles”
“greatly influenced my preferences in programming languages”
“Plenty of computer magazines from that era on archive.org.”
“I got so much out of manually typing in code from old BYTE Magazine”
“looking at the ads in Byte”
“BYTE started as a user manual and ended its existence as a catalog of things with user manuals.”
“It became just another MS-DOS rag. In the early days it covered EVERYTHING, all ISAs, all programming languages”
“Byte was a favorite for me (at the time I was in high school) because it covered things that platform specific mags didn't.”
“Hard to express what that monthly compendium of electronic and computer hobbyist articles meant”
“this seems a lot more reasonable than the 168GB torrent available from IA”
“this seems a lot more reasonable than the 168GB torrent available from IA, which I was halfway through downloading”
“really kick-started my excitement with computers”
“a better and more complete collection than what archive.org had”
“I spent so many hours reading BYTE and Computer World and OMNI - and learned so much along the way”
“I absolutely love that these are all available online.”
“I loved Steve Ciarcia's column and hated Jerry Pournelle's column that got too much space.”
“after devouring the magazine for months it started making sense”
“I just can't thank the BYTE folks enough for those mind-expanding days”
“it became THICK, but not informative - where there was just so much advertising”
“Jerry Pournelle's column alone was worth the price of admission.”
“You nailed it with BYTE & Radio Electronics.”
“BYTE was huge to me, it was my first real foray into cross-platform/multi-discipline software development”
“Byte always seemed more commercially orientated than hobbyist, but I would buy and read it all the same.”
“The ads weren't annoying, they were the whole point, even more so than the articles themselves!”
“I learned a tremendous deal from it and I will forever be grateful.”
“I've downloaded the entire thing a while back for nostalgia sake.”
“I learned a huge amount: object-oriented programming, this new thing called the Internet”
“Those ads were the only way to actually know what software and hardware was available to buy”
“Byte is what got me hooked on the path I walk to this day”
“The amount of ads are insane.”
“Byte and Dr Drobbs had the odd technical article but gone mostly mainstream by the 80s.”
“Nary a month goes by that I don't bemoan the loss of BYTE”
“that defined computer interaction and programming as we know it today”
“Worth a read if you're hip to interactive fiction.”
“He set the best tone for what computing feels like.”
“As a way of teaching a teenager about the full range of computer technology from the Cambridge Active Badge through to Big Data, it was and is unmatched.”
“none covers the breadth and depth of BYTE”
“Probably one of the best computing magazines that existed”
“windows into the larger world of computers”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.