My local public library branch and high school library (LA County; San Gabriel Valley) carried BYTE and you could easily find it in computer and book stores in the 1980s. By the 1990s it was on its way out, but it was as mainstream as any other computer pub of its time.
>, but it was as mainstream as any other computer pub of its time.
We remember differently. Yes, the libraries had BYTE but again, I'm talking about relative popularity. As another datapoint, the 1980s grocery stores' magazine section which of course would be much smaller than Barnes & Noble would have PC Magazine and Computer Shopper but they never carried BYTE. BYTE was always more niche than PC Magazine which lowered the number of retail outlets where it could be purchased.
PC Magazine covered applications (Lotus 123, MS DOS, etc) and games which was relevant to a larger population. BYTE was never a magazine for the "masses".
