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Yesterday, while working on a reference for a particular post, it came to my attention that O’Reilly have “opensourced” all the back issues of Release 1.0.

To me this is fantastic news. On a cursory glance, every issue from 1983 to 2006 appears to be available for digital download, free of charge. I had been a subscriber to Release 1.0 for a number of years, and I’m happy to acknowledge my debt of gratitude to Esther and the team. They led the field in identifying key themes and topics, providing a reasoned and in-depth introduction to the topics, giving a truly detailed bibliography and contact information, and doing all this aeons ahead of the competition. They gave me early perspective on many issues that later turned out to be critical.

I’ve had the privilege of meeting a number of the contributors over the years, and count many of them amongst my friends. If you were a subscriber then you know what I’m talking about. If you weren’t, then it’s worth taking a look.

Let me know what you think.