Ken Fisher, who serves as the website's current editor-in-chief, and Jon Stokes created "Ars Technica" in 1998. Its purpose was to publish computer hardware and software-related news articles and guides; in their words, "the best multi-OS, PC hardware, and tech coverage possible while ... having fun, being productive, and being as informative and as accurate as possible". "Ars technica" is a Latin phrase that translates to "Art of Technology". The website published news, reviews, guides, and other content of interest to computer enthusiasts. Writers for "Ars Technica" were geographically distributed across the United States at the time; Fisher lived in his parents' house in Boston, Stokes in Chicago, and the other writers in their respective cities.