Lots of stuff, but lots of junk as well

I'm old enough to remember the first issues of PC Magazine. Those were the days when PC was still a novelty and I religiously read every word printed in PC Mag in order to "hack" my PCs (which cost over $2000 with *no* hard drive!). Over the years it became a thick magazine packed with reviews and tips on how to get the last bit of performance out of DOS.

Then a few years ago the founding editor retired and PC Mag's parent company was taken over by a Korean company called Softbank. The magazine (and its sister publications including PC Week) became rather stale and conservative. Every issue became totally predictable, and the number of reviews dropped, probably a victim of its cost-conscious Korean bosses. To this day, PC Mag is an overall solid magazine that you can't get excited about. The editorials all sound the same (conservatively futuristic with no clear viewpoints), the reviews shallow and unreliable, and the Internet sections neither serious nor fun-to-read. The back pages, devoted to "after hours," are close to being useless.

PC Mag does have a decent website; just don't try to use its useless search function. This is a magazine you can read in the library, not something worth paying for. For something that can probably arouse your passion in PC computing, try "Maximum PC" magazine.

Good, but...

PC Magazine has a lot of good reviews, offers many helpful tips, and covers breaking technology. It's targeted a little more towards the "what will be" area of computing as opposed to PC World, which is very product-centered.

I enjoy this magazine, and am a new subcriber, but if forced to choose only one, I'd take PC World over this mag.

Every few issues has something interesting...

I signed up last year for a free subscription I found on the web. Not bad for free, but I did not renew the subscription (I would have to pay this time). The magazine was ok, but really only had interesting items every few issues.