We take a look back at the biggest stories of our first 10 years

Ten years is a long time by anyone’s reckoning, but in technology terms it’s several generations.

It was 10 years ago that the very first issue of Computeractive arrived on shop shelves.

If that seems unbelievable, then trust us when we say that we can barely accept it ourselves.

Numerous members of the original launch team still float around these parts and they attest that it just doesn’t feel like 10 years have passed. But they have and an awful lot has happened in between.

Do you remember what you were doing when Computeractive launched? No, nor do we. So join us as we attempt to jog our memories by look backing at some of our yesterdays.

2008
We’d barely recovered from the New Year hangover when potentially the biggest news event of the year exploded ­ – the apparent deathblow dealt by Blu-ray to rival next-generation DVD format, HD DVD.

When movie studio Warner abandoned its support for HD DVD in January, the world’s media concluded that it was time to press eject on the HD DVD format. In the event, the world’s media has been proved right; at the end of February Toshiba announced it was ditching its HD DVD business, effectively ending the 'next-generation format war'.

We have no hesitation hailing victory for our Crystal Clear Broadband campaign. Industry regulator Ofcom’s Consumer Panel has backed our call to force ISPs to provide clear information about the actual internet connection speeds users are likely to get, rather than focusing on theoretical maximums. Find out more about the campaign here.

2007
Our 10th year of publishing began with torrential rainstorms and gales lashing the country, but wind wasn’t the only thing breaking windows. PC users had been pootling along with Windows XP for six years, and happily so for the most part. But Microsoft wanted some upgrade cash from us, so it released Windows Vista.

Vista has failed to engage PC users in quite the same way as its predecessor did. Our first impressions of Vista, published to coincide with its release to the public in January 2007, were generally positive, although we were critical of the lack of preparation made to ensure older peripherals and software would be compatible.

We were also unimpressed by the number of confusing versions and the high price, and advised readers to wait until they needed a new PC to upgrade. Many of you were less than thrilled. For weeks afterwards, our Letters pages were filled with moans, groans and sometimes outright vitriol directed at Microsoft.

Some objected to Vista’s price, while others complained about the hardware requirements. Still more of you simply couldn’t see the point of upgrading.

It wasn’t all negative though. Some of you liked Vista’s new parental control tools and its enhanced security. Some even liked the fancy new graphics of Aero. Such was the need for information that we launched a dedicated Windows blog, Windows Watch.

Microsoft’s arch rival Apple, meanwhile, had a rather rosier time in 2007. Proving even to Apple-haters that the company can sometimes work wonders, the introduction of the iPhone gave all other mobile phone makers a lot to think about.

Outside of technology 2007 was also the year that Princess Diana didn’t die, though her constant appearance on news bulletins might’ve convinced you her passing was rather more recent than 10 years ago, and ‘pop’ group Scooch singularly failed to make the British flag fly at the Eurovision Song Contest.

2006
It’s a good job we’re mainly concerned with technology happenings here or we’d surely run out of room listing 2006’s wider-world rumblings.

To take a few examples, the solar system shrunk as Pluto was elbowed out, Steve Irwin got too close to a stingray and paid with his life and a huge rabbit was terrorising gardeners in Northumberland.

Back in the tech world, 2006 was the year of games consoles, with the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 all hoping to damage gamers’ thumbs.

Actually, that statement carries a couple of inaccuracies. The Xbox 360 was in fact launched just before Christmas 2005, while Nintendo had no interest in generating repetitive thumb injuries: the Wii’s novel controllers would allow people to interact by thrashing their arms around instead.

Back then, Sony’s Playstation was market leader by a country mile, prompting many commentators to question the wisdom of Microsoft pumping yet more cash into the lacklustre Xbox brand.

The commercial chances of the Wii, meanwhile, were all but written off, thanks to its silly name and behind-the-times graphics. This goes to show how long two years can be in this game.

Christmas 2007 saw parents throwing punches at one another in a desperate effort to secure the last Wii on shop shelves (surely not the kind of arm-flailing Nintendo had in mind). The Xbox 360 came in second, while unsold Playstation 3 stocks continue to pile up all around.

Fortunately for us, we spotted the Wii’s potential and declared that it offered “pick-up-and-play fun in spades”. The Xbox 360, meanwhile, offered the ability to play PC-based video and music on your television using its Media Center Extender feature.

As for the Playstation, we concluded that it “has a lot of convincing to do”. Two years on, we have no cause to feel differently. We still want one though.

2005
While we’re fond of a tipple at Computeractive HQ (after work, of course) even we lacked the stamina to keep up with the latest change to the UK’s leisure hours with the introduction of 24-hour licensing.

While we were praying for last orders, Prince Charles married Camilla, Pope John Paul II passed away, Doctor Who returned to TV and the whole world became strangely obsessed by a decades-old puzzle game called sudoku.

Video sharing was also a watchword of 2005, with the launch of Youtube. Admittedly, distributing videos via the internet wasn’t exactly a new idea ­ we showed Computeractive readers how to do it back in 1999 ­ but Youtube made it extremely easy and accessible. Just a few months after its launch, tens of millions of people were using Youtube every day.

We also waved a rather bitter goodbye to a couple of very old names, as both Time and Tiny disappeared from the high street.

The company behind them, Granville Technology, had gone bust, leaving thousands of users without support.

We supported Time- and Tiny-owning readers by promoting a petition for an official government investigation into the collapse.

The year ushered in another leap forwards for computing power, as processor company AMD launched the first dual-core chip for desktop PCs.

2004
Four years ago, US president George ‘Dubya’ Bush won a second term in office while the world gazed, slack-jawed, in disbelief.

Tony Blair, meanwhile, made a stand for clowns’ rights by taking a bag of flour in the face in the House of Commons. Security commentators frothed at the mouth while we savoured the sole bit of entertainment to emerge from Parliament in 400 years.

Turning to technology once more, perhaps the biggest announcement this year came from Google. The company boasted that users of its new Gmail webmail service would never again have to delete messages, thanks to a 1GB inbox.

Some websites and magazines claimed it would never happen, both because 1GB email storage seemed ridiculously large at the time and because the press release was dated 1 April. We knew it wasn’t a Fool’s Day prank, largely because we phoned the company and asked it. The old methods are the best.

Today, Gmail inboxes stand at over 6GB (though don’t try sending attachments larger than a few megabytes because the email industry hasn’t cottoned on to how people actually want to use email today).

And the UK finally got its own version of the iTunes Music Store, which Apple had launched the year before in America. What did we make of the chance to download digital audio legally? We commented that the pricing was “highly competitive” and predicted great success for the system. Bang on again.

Flickr hit the internet for the first time in 2004 and we carried an early review, calling it “curiously addictive”. We also said that the Flickr community was small enough that you could “meet with the site’s creators within a day of joining”.

Don’t try that today, mind, as Flickr has become an enormous photo-based social networking site that eats away at people’s lives, including ours, single-handedly seducing the UK’s economic productivity.

2003
This year began with the space shuttle Columbia burning up during re-entry followed by Baghdad burning up under the shock-and-awe bombardment by allied aircraft.

With such depressing news, it’s probably no wonder David Blaine decided to starve himself while suspended over the Thames in a box.

Even in the generally happier world of technology, 2003 was actually pretty depressing. In March of this year, for example, we reported on NTL’s decision to impose a cap on downloads by its broadband subscribers ­ the first ISP to do so.

We guessed that the 1GB cap by NTL (now called Virgin Media) wouldn’t be the last and five years on, it’s no pleasure mulling over the accuracy of our prediction, with many internet service providers now advertising ‘unlimited’ broadband plans that are anything but.

Mobile phone giant Nokia, meanwhile, decided to take on Nintendo in the handheld gaming arena by launching the N-Gage, a mobile phone cum games console. The media were excited by the prospect but, come launch day, realised that the N-Gage was rubbish.

Then some hope, as Apple announced it was going to shake up music downloads by offering people a legal alternative to copyright-busting ‘sharing’ sites. As noted, though, it’d take another year to reach the UK.

But there was no waiting for Skype, the internet telephony service that launched worldwide this year: easy-to-use software and the prospect of cheap phone calls quickly bagged the company tens of millions of subscribers.

2002
As 12 European countries woke to a new currency in 2002, the UK’s fledgling terrestrial digital television endeavour looked set to come to an abrupt end.

ITV Digital (formerly ON Digital) was forced to take an early bath as a result of having bid too much for the right to broadcast some dull football matches.

The Government acted sharply to get things back on track, though, quickly awarding ITV Digital’s licence to a new consortium led by the BBC – ­ enter Freeview.

Microsoft, meanwhile, tried to find new places to sell Windows by inventing the Tablet PC, a type of notebook computer with a screen on which users could write. Not that many tried, mind.

The Tablet PC proved something of a flop, justifying our earlier advice to readers not to bother with Tablet PCs unless they were “the kind of business class-travelling high-flyer who flits between cities, delivering an endless stream of Powerpoint presentations to boardrooms”.

Back in the real world, 2002 was also the year that TV killed off the traditional competition to bag the Christmas number one. Rush-released singles on the back of popular, if generally talent-free, talent shows (Popstars: The Rivals in this year) are all but guaranteed to top the festive charts these days. At least Girls Aloud’s Sound Of The Underground had a good beat.

2001
As jokes go, declaring 2001 to be the year that Microsoft fixed Windows might’ve worked better if we weren’t working backwards.

Regardless, it was in October of this year that Windows XP was born, quickly banishing all memories of Windows Me.

Apple came up with the iPod, which launched with only a small amount of hype but became a huge success.

Conversely, inventor Dean Kamen unveiled his ‘It’ device, an endlessly talked-up secret project that, it was said would change the way cities thought about transport.

‘It’ turned out to be an electric scooter with an enormous price tag. To be fair, though, it did change transport thinking in some cities: use of the Segway on pavements has been banned by numerous authorities around the world.

Outside of technology, Nicole Kidman, having divorced Tom Cruise, was in a mood to sing and duly took the Christmas number one, in a duet with Robbie Williams.

Elsewhere, of course, two planes were flown into the World Trade Center, New York, killing almost 3,000 and sparking the US-led ‘War on Terror’.

2000
At the risk of this becoming the Official Record Of Windows Release Years, the new millennium saw Microsoft release, you guessed it, a new version of Windows.

Windows Millennium Edition (Me), as Microsoft dubbed its latest version of the operating system, turned out to be full of bugs and many who installed it quickly regretted their decision. We warned readers that Windows Me wasn’t for the faint-hearted. Others called it Windows Mistake Edition.

With this in mind, it seems fitting that Bob The Builder claimed the 2000 Christmas top spot, with Can We Fix It? (and though the correct refrain was “Yes We Can!” we imagine Microsoft’s programmers responded with a muted “Give us a couple of years”). We tuned into this ditty’s airplay via digital radio, using Psion’s £300 Wavefinder DAB receiver.

At the time, it was one of the cheapest DAB radios around but then, in terms of consumer availability, the technology was barely a year old. A basic DAB radio will now cost you about £30.

A new audio format also debuted in 2000, though it’s unlikely you’d remember. DVD-A (or DVD-Audio) was hailed as the replacement for the humble CD, though it seems no-one thought to ask consumers if they wanted such a thing. They didn’t, so DVD-A died a lingering death, along with the rival Super Audio CD (or SACD) format released the year before.

The abbreviation ‘PVR’ (short for personal video recorder) also entered the British consciousness this year, as Tivo made its debut in the UK. A big hit in America, Tivo’s UK arm achieved the impressive feat of turning the amazing hard disk recorder into a marketing failure here. Today, Tivo is a verb Stateside, but here everyone Sky Plusses.

And if you thought social networking was a new phenomenon, think again: Friends Reunited launched in this year.

1999
Inside or outside technology, there was essentially only one story in 1999: ­ the Millennium Bug.

Thanks to a lack of foresight by programmers of yesteryear, we were told that come midnight on 31 December 1999 anything reliant on a computer would crash. This meant planes would crash, trains would crash and cars with digital dashboards would crash.

In the event, very little crashed, save perhaps for various software and consultancy businesses that had built livelihoods on things-will-crash scaremongering for the previous few years. If only Westlife could’ve crashed out of the charts, rather than bagging the Christmas number one spot with ‘double A’ single I Have A Dream and Seasons In The Sun.

Incidentally, one product this year claimed the rare honour of wearing both the good technology and the bad technology crowns. That product was Napster, the file-sharing system.

Basically, it allowed internet-connected computer users to share their digital-audio collections.

The questionable legality of doing so didn’t stop millions of people around the world indulging and Napster quickly became huge, at least in part because at the time no practical legal alternative existed (the iTunes Store was five years away).

Napster is now an entirely legitimate music download site, after disc-burning mammoth Roxio bought the right to use the infamous name and cool feline logo.

1998
Though Computeractive launched in 1998, work began almost a year before.

The plan was to shake up the staid and stuffy tech-magazine sector, which was ruled by geek overlords who enjoyed demonstrating their own technical prowess by baffling readers with columns of impenetrable jargon.

We believed it could be done differently and set to work producing a computer magazine that anyone could read.

So, as the Spice Girls’ Christmas hit Goodbye dropped out of the pop charts, we shouted a big “Hello” on 12 February 1998 with a £4 million promotional campaign, the much-copied Jargon Buster and, we hoped, a computer magazine that everyone could read and understand.

Our dastardly scheme worked and Computeractive became the UK’s biggest-selling tech title overnight. Indeed, selling hundreds of thousands more than our nearest competitors, we ranked among the highest echelons of UK consumer publications. The good news is that we’re still at the top, and we intend to remain here.

But what else was there of note in 1998? Well, Apple released its very first iMac and our newshounds reported that the Government was set to issue ‘hacker-proof’ notebook PCs, replete with voice- and fingerprint-recognition systems, to high-ranking ministers and civil servants.

Very reassuring, until 10 years later someone handed over half the population’s personal details on a couple of CDs to a bloke called Boris.

Our first issue also included a review of a program that enabled telephone calls over the internet, some five years before Skype capitalised the idea. To top things off we’d organised a round-up of the day’s best digital cameras.

Looking not unlike an 8mm cinecamera crossed with a pair of binoculars, Kodak’s DC120 won our first ever Buy It! award, thanks in part to its one-megapixel resolution and 2MB of memory ­ a bargain at £600.

Less impressive was our look at Minidisc players. Six years after the format was invented, we declared that it had “finally arrived”. Then MP3 took off instead. But one duff prediction in 10 years isn’t bad.

2009...
Now here’s the downside of working in reverse: we know that you know that we know that 2009 doesn’t come after 1998. But we could hardly have put a look to the future at the beginning of a retrospective, could we? So hopefully the logic of working backwards makes sense.

So, what are our predictions for the next 10 years? We’re not getting drawn into that one. If pushed, though, we’d wager that Microsoft will continue breaking and fixing Windows. As for this year’s Christmas number one? Our money’s on a duet between Hillary Clinton and Ken Dodd. Form an orderly queue at the bookies.

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