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                                    BLUEGAB
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Welcome to the first issue of ^1BIG BLUE DISK^0, the disk magazine for the IBM 
Personal Computer.  

Since 1981, ^1SOFTDISK, INC.^0, no newcomer to the field of electronic publishing,
has been publishing disk magazines for other computers:  ^1SOFTDISK^0 for the Apple 
II+, IIe and IIc, and ^1LOADSTAR^0 for the Commodore 64 and 128.  Over these five 
years, we've been refining our skills at producing quality publications 
contained entirely on floppy diskettes.  Now, as we enter the marketplace of 
the computer that has become the standard in personal computing: the IBM PC, we 
are bringing these skills to play.  

Today, the fashionable trend in computer publications, particularly those 
centering on the IBM PC and compatibles, is to aim solely at corporate computer 
users and openly ignore home users, hobbyists, and recreational users.  

We hope to be different.  The corporate segment of the market is certainly 
important, but it is already covered by so many publishers that there is no 
need for yet another narrow-focus publication in this area.

Thus we intend to give a good deal of coverage to other, equally important 
areas of the computer user community which have been neglected lately.  One such
group is home users, who may have bought their PC because of its compatibility 
with computers they use at the office, but who are looking for more exciting 
things to do with it than to just run spreadsheets and databases.  For them we 
will run a variety of useful programs for home applications, as well as games, 
novelties, and graphics.  

Another group consists of those involved in education; this includes teachers 
and students at schools, as well as individuals who wish to use their PC to 
educate themselves or their children.  In this area, we will publish educational
programs on various subjects such as tutorials and self-improvement.  

Yet another group of PC users is "hackers" or "hobbyists".  This group started 
the personal computer field over 10 years ago, and once dominated it.  They are 
now a small minority among less-technical users, but that doesn't mean they 
must be completely ignored; our "Happy Hacker" department will run hints, tips, 
and utilities especially for programmers.  Even non-technical users may want to
read the text files in this department; some of these items may be useful to 
you, and you may just learn something new about how your PC works.  

The fact that our publication is not totally aimed at corporate users should 
not be interpreted to mean that we are ignoring business computing; we will 
also be running programs and features of interest to this community.  For 
example, this issue contains the first review in any publication of the newest 
version of the ^1VersaForm XL^0 forms-oriented database program.  

Future issues will have a variety of material in all categories and departments.
In addition, we have planned demo versions of commercial programs, to let 
you sample them without needing to purchase them.  Many other exciting features 
are in the planning stages; we'll let you know about them in future issues.  

Stick with us; you and your PC will be glad you did.  

                                 Daniel Tobias
                                Managing Editor
