Tom's 20th Anniversary: A Retrospective With The Editors-in-Chief

[FritzEiv]

As Tom's Hardware celebrates 20 years, we share thoughts from all who served as Editor-in-Chief in the last two decades, including the founder and the man behind the site's name: Dr. Thomas Pabst.

Tom's 20th Anniversary: A Retrospective With The Editors-in-Chief : Read more

 

[beetlejuicegr]

Nice to finally see who was tom's founder. nice to see him being active and on an important thing too. Good points of view on VR and cars

 

[Onus]

While it may seem like blasphemy, I'm going to basically agree with David Strom about overclocking. In the "old" days, people had to overclock to keep up with new software. Today, while some improvement is possible, it does not seem that overclocking is a make or break requirement when it comes to running certain software.
I would have liked to have seen some references to the evolution away from print media like PC Week and PC Magazine, which old guys like me used to devour for current tech and the state of the industry. Matching wits with those guys was always fun. Were mags like that an influence? Did they provide a starting point? Were they guides for what to do, or what not to do?

 

[dgingeri]

It's funny that this coincides with my birthday.

 

[nycalex]

"The industry is divided in very few truly innovative businesses, and then [into] a myriad of companies that sneakily wait for others to have the courage of bringing real novelties to the market so that they can make their very own "me too" product. It's a sad situation, but look at Tom's Hardware's history and all the "me too" hardware websites that came up a few years later. It's human nature. There are few with vision, and many simply driven by jealousy and greed."

wow! This man KNOWS!
i could not agree more.

 

[2Be_or_Not2Be]

I find Tom's remark about smartphones to be quite telling. It seems to be the greatest irony to have a social network, like Facebook, that is supposed to increase your social interactions/connections, become the reason why you see groups of people (even families) not interacting with each other because they are all on their smartphones.

 

[de5_Roy]

happy 20th anniversary tom's!
this site has helped me so much. thank you!

 

[jimmysmitty]

"The industry is divided in very few truly innovative businesses, and then [into] a myriad of companies that sneakily wait for others to have the courage of bringing real novelties to the market so that they can make their very own "me too" product. It's a sad situation, but look at Tom's Hardware's history and all the "me too" hardware websites that came up a few years later. It's human nature. There are few with vision, and many simply driven by jealousy and greed."

wow! This man KNOWS!
i could not agree more.

Tom is a smart man. He started one of the first tech sites that is currently the largest. He also knew how to have fun with it and show off some fun things.

I find Tom's remark about smartphones to be quite telling. It seems to be the greatest irony to have a social network, like Facebook, that is supposed to increase your social interactions/connections, become the reason why you see groups of people (even families) not interacting with each other because they are all on their smartphones.

It is sad but true. I remember going to a restaurant one time and seeing a family with everyone's nose in their phones. I just can't seem to understand why they can't put them down for a meal with the family. I barely use my phone when I am eating a meal let alone out with family/friends.

I love Toms. 20 years of great fun and technology.

 

[nukemaster]

I agree with Thomas Pabst's comments.

Everything has changed quite a bit since this site came online 20 years ago. Not all of it has been good(in my opinion, so feel free to disagree).

I have been reading almost since the start and later joined the forums here.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Sounds like Tom has something secret up his sleeve, as per his final statement.

 

[nukemaster]

Sounds like Tom has something secret up his sleeve, as per his final statement.

For sure.

It will be interesting to see what he does next.

 

[DookieDraws]

I've been visiting the Tom's website since the very beginning. I still visit here nearly every day. Spent countless hours on this site simply reading the articles or plundering through the forums. I've certainly gained a lot of knowledge from this awesome site over those years. I love reading about the latest computer-related technology, and Tom's has never disappointed. Well, except for the trouble we have to go through to view a larger version of an image. Maybe sometime within the next 20 years Tom's will figure out a better solution for us. Fingers, toes, and eyes all crossed.

Anyway, I certainly appreciate all the hard work that makes this place so great. You know you're doing something right to be able to last this long. So keep up the awesome work, guys and gals!

Thanks for such an awesome site, Tom's!

 

[turkey3_scratch]

I've been visiting the Tom's website since the very beginning. I still visit here nearly every day. Spent countless hours on this site simply reading the articles or plundering through the forums. I've certainly gained a lot of knowledge from this awesome site over those years. I love reading about the latest computer-related technology, and Tom's has never disappointed. Well, except for the trouble we have to go through to view a larger version of an image. Maybe sometime within the next 20 years Tom's will figure out a better solution for us. Fingers, toes, and eyes all crossed.

Anyway, I certainly appreciate all the hard work that makes this place so great. You know you're doing something right to be able to last this long. So keep up the awesome work, guys and gals!

Thanks for such an awesome site, Tom's!

You know you can just right-click an image and select "open in new tab" to view the full size, right?

 

[nukemaster]

I've been visiting the Tom's website since the very beginning. I still visit here nearly every day. Spent countless hours on this site simply reading the articles or plundering through the forums. I've certainly gained a lot of knowledge from this awesome site over those years. I love reading about the latest computer-related technology, and Tom's has never disappointed. Well, except for the trouble we have to go through to view a larger version of an image. Maybe sometime within the next 20 years Tom's will figure out a better solution for us. Fingers, toes, and eyes all crossed.

Anyway, I certainly appreciate all the hard work that makes this place so great. You know you're doing something right to be able to last this long. So keep up the awesome work, guys and gals!

Thanks for such an awesome site, Tom's!

You know you can just right-click an image and select "open in new tab" to view the full size, right?

You can also hold control(Ctrl) when clicking on most browsers to open in a new tab.

 

[DookieDraws]

I've been visiting the Tom's website since the very beginning. I still visit here nearly every day. Spent countless hours on this site simply reading the articles or plundering through the forums. I've certainly gained a lot of knowledge from this awesome site over those years. I love reading about the latest computer-related technology, and Tom's has never disappointed. Well, except for the trouble we have to go through to view a larger version of an image. Maybe sometime within the next 20 years Tom's will figure out a better solution for us. Fingers, toes, and eyes all crossed.

Anyway, I certainly appreciate all the hard work that makes this place so great. You know you're doing something right to be able to last this long. So keep up the awesome work, guys and gals!

Thanks for such an awesome site, Tom's!

You know you can just right-click an image and select "open in new tab" to view the full size, right?

That still won't display an image full size. You still have to click twice to get to the larger version.

 

[nukemaster]

That still won't display an image full size. You still have to click twice to get to the larger version.

Not going to lie to you, it helps pay the bills because of the ad's displayed on the page and then the first image page. It is how so many things are free online.

 

[DookieDraws]

That still won't display an image full size. You still have to click twice to get to the larger version.

Not going to lie to you, it helps pay the bills because of the ad's displayed on the page and then the first image page.

He he. I understand and it truly is no big deal. It's just something I've always poked fun at around here. Been doing it for awhile, in fact.

It's all good!

 

[FritzEiv]

That still won't display an image full size. You still have to click twice to get to the larger version.

Not going to lie to you, it helps pay the bills because of the ad's displayed on the page and then the first image page.

He he. I understand and it truly is no big deal. It's just something I've always poked fun at around here. Been doing it for awhile, in fact.

It's all good!

Actually, this is being fixed imminently. My lips are sealed beyond that little tease.

 

[Unolocogringo]

Kind of hard to believe I've been here 20 years!!!!!

But I have learned sooooo much from this site that I feel I need to pass on that knowledge to the younger generation, by posting in the forums when I can.
Do not get to post a lot, but help whoever, whenever I can.

Thanks Toms for so many fond memories over the years.

 

[gofasterstripes]

Adding my voice - without Tom's I'd have not learnt half of the things I know about PCs, not have sat up waiting and spamming F5 looking for a review [Hey, I quite liked my 470 GTX, till it cooked itself!] and also, another really important bit, not have been able to help people with forum posts and in-person information that came from Toms.

Thanks to all the contributors, the detailed content, the silly content and all the later-night oil burned.

Today I will find and overclock my Pentium MMX 166 in your honor

 

[spinitboy]

I've been using Toms Hardware on and off for the last 15 years. I have to say its one of my "Go-To" sites when i need information about tech or what I'm going to put into mynext build. Solid and reliable information and not too OTT on the technicalities (like some others.. Anand!). I especially like and hope they continue do this - System Builder. I've based my purchases on many of these and really feel they add significant value to people.

Happy Anniversary TH!! Long may it continue!

Mark

 

[Memhorder]

Congrats!

Love this site

This is a quote from David Strom section

"We had writers delivering stories to us in French, German and Australian"

What do Australians speak?

 

[Vdrummer]

Happy Birthday THG! Can't believe it's been that long. My fist build was around the Asus P55T2P4 which I've read a review about (actually by Tom himself) (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/motherboard-review,10.html). That build has seen two CPU upgrades and was running for many years. Keep up the good work.

 

[Wizwill]

I built my first Internet-capable PC just as Windows 95 (16-bit) emerged, The first search I ran in IE was for 'auto racing'. I got 8 hits. Today, I can't imagine how many sites one would find with the same survey.
I DO miss InfoSeek but THG has been my constant companion/advisor the past 20 years. I am pleased by Tom's reliance on Pair as an ISP. I discovered these folks about 5 years ago and am also a very satisfied user.

The content of THG has always been top shelf and provided an unbiased authority presented to clients many times.

Good luck for 20 more!
Wizwill

 

[bit_user]

Thanks for everything, guys.

Special thanks to Tom: back in '96, when I built my first PC with parts bought from a computer fair, I was amazed to find a web site that actually reviewed motherboards. That was your site, before you even had your own domain!

BTW: I think USB was a quiet revolution, from 1996 - 2001. In fact, 1.0 was finalized in Jan 1996 and 2.0 in April 2000. It's the biggest single change in PC I/O and expansion capabilities that I can remember, in PC history. It ushered in a range of new form factors, devices, and storage. But I respect that your list of highlights is a personal thing.

Here's to many more years, as deep tech journalism becomes ever more important.