[kylenstone]

Use this forum to discuss, brainstorm, and evaluate 2009's best tech products.

[kylenstone]

Adding a poll to help get the discussion started.

[quackadilly]

This is a good year for operating systems.

Windows 7 is vastly improving upon Vista and XP. Performance, security, compatibility, ease of use, etc.

Snow Leopard, while not a new OS, is a very welcomed improvement bringing in full 64-bit.

Linux is still making headway into the desktop OS market. It just needs the vendor support.

[skyluminaire]

quackadilly, on 19 October 2009 - 05:51 PM, said:

This is a good year for operating systems.

Windows 7 is vastly improving upon Vista and XP. Performance, security, compatibility, ease of use, etc.

Snow Leopard, while not a new OS, is a very welcomed improvement bringing in full 64-bit.

Linux is still making headway into the desktop OS market. It just needs the vendor support.

True - but Windows 7 seems a little too late in the game to win "best product of the year." Having only just been released, there is still no real indication of how it will be received by the general public, or anyone not from the "elite tech enthusiast" camp.

[KStrawn]

Ubuntu 9.10

[myloginname]

I would say an OS for top spot, probably Win 7....OS's have been big this year, with snow leopard and win 7, and the always improving linux platforms. If not OS, then hardware, lots of big changes like the new i7 tech, improved SLI and CrossfireX, etc.

[quackadilly]

skyluminaire, on 19 October 2009 - 11:16 AM, said:

quackadilly, on 19 October 2009 - 05:51 PM, said:

This is a good year for operating systems.

Windows 7 is vastly improving upon Vista and XP. Performance, security, compatibility, ease of use, etc.

Snow Leopard, while not a new OS, is a very welcomed improvement bringing in full 64-bit.

Linux is still making headway into the desktop OS market. It just needs the vendor support.

True - but Windows 7 seems a little too late in the game to win "best product of the year." Having only just been released, there is still no real indication of how it will be received by the general public, or anyone not from the "elite tech enthusiast" camp.

But, Windows 7 has been out in beta form for some time now and has acquired a following already....before official release. People like it, much better than Vista, much better than XP. Once the general public uses it, I guarantee they will like it. It is 100% better than Vista.

[backbuster]

This is going to be PCWorld’s list of top products not what PC users think are the top 100. That being the case I chose the iPhone 3Gs for the number one spot. I would be very surprised if PCWorld did not have an Apple product at the top of the list. The dollar speaks and with advertising dollars coming from Apple PCWorld is going to want to keep them happy.

[lutra]

quackadilly, on 19 October 2009 - 05:51 PM, said:

This is a good year for operating systems.

Windows 7 is vastly improving upon Vista and XP. Performance, security, compatibility, ease of use, etc.

Snow Leopard, while not a new OS, is a very welcomed improvement bringing in full 64-bit.

Linux is still making headway into the desktop OS market. It just needs the vendor support.

I agree, this year is the year of the OS and I would put OSX Snow Leopard and Windows 7 up on the top 100 products in a heartbeat.

Quote

merchandise: commodities offered for sale

Does Linux really count as a product though? It's free.

[myloginname]

Looks like we were.....lets say way off. The article "100 best products of 2009" just came out. I read through it, and guess what claims spot #1? The app store. Tell you the truth, I kind've understand their reasoning.....a year ago, it had less than 100,000 apps. Now it has millions and billions of apps. My only complaint....why is an APPLE product in first place? Not saying apple is bad....well i hate macs, but i have to admit, i love iPhones and iPods. but still...this mag is called PCWorld. I mean, i wouldn't mind the app store being 2nd or 3rd...but i really think that it shouldn't of been first. The app store was released years ago. Like the others have been saying, I think it should've been win 7 or even snow leopard

Looking at the other picks, we have google voice in second. Google Voice? Really? I must say i disagree here.....how much people actually use google voice? Not many that i know of. And considering iPhones don't support google voice(along with many other phones), i really don't see how its so great. Sure, its a neat app, but we really don't have much use for it. It has potential, but it hasn't really been 'integrated' into the market yet. Perhaps next year it will be a totally different story, but not this year...

Here is.....Windows 7. In spot #11. I think thats way off. At least the top ten, if not top 5. Instead most of the products in the top ten were cameras and other hardware. I liked the laptop with wireless charging, but i thought the cameras could of been put somewhere else....they don't have a "big" tech change. just a lot of zoom, good pic quality and thats it? maybe you could of put a waterproof camera, or a pocket camera. And of course, as i've been saying, you should put win 7 and snow leopard in the top ten.

#21 and #22....HTC hero and Microsoft Zune. Wait a minute. What about the iphone? new nanos with cameras? new ipod touches? instead you put zunes? though zunes may be nice, i would pick an ipod any day. and with the new video cameras in nanos, it should easily be ranked better than a zune.

I also see ALOT of websites, laptops, and software on the list. But i don't see much mainstream products in the top 50. There are lots of laptops, and lots of websites....many video sharing sites and such. But where are the mainstream stuff like snow leopard? blackberries? PS3 slim? or even the wii motionplus? i see so much websites and stuff that i've never heard of, that i've never seen PCW recommend in any article, suddenly ranked really high.

I see facebook and twitter up there....no YouTube? or yahoo, hotmail? just because these sites are really old, doesn't mean they're not great products. they should still be on the list. think, how often do you use youtube? yahoo? hotmail? very often.

to top it off....i was a bit surprised i couldn't find PCW in there. its one of my favs! even though that PCW shouldn't advertise their own website, it should still be on the list! its an awesome website!(and mag)

[Grr8008]

Macs and PC's are the same. PC=personal computer. And I agree that they should have put in more mainstream products, maybe a Belkin rockstar!

[Weynand2009]

Great topic! I agree it is a solid year for operating systems but there have been some stellar software releases as well. I'd nominate the new Final Cut Pro 7.

[SnyperTodd]

backbuster, on 20 October 2009 - 07:41 PM, said:

I would be very surprised if PCWorld did not have an Apple product at the top of the list. The dollar speaks and with advertising dollars coming from Apple PCWorld is going to want to keep them happy.

Boy, you called that right on, Backbuster! Nice job!

[iceycooler9]

Mandriva 2010.0 was released November 3rd, i just downloaded my powerpack on friday and installed then. I have to say, i thought windows 7 was going to let all hell loose and kill all the others, especially looking at ubuntu 9.1's launch going terrible, with bad reviews, even uglier poop artwork, and bad feedback from even the fans who had bunch of problems, most people think its an upstream thing, but after trying Mandriva 2010, its rock solid (even in KDE4), new enhanced artwork and theme (finally they decided to make KDE4 look nice,they went from ugly in 2009.1 to hitting it out of the ballpark almost), fast in boot time and performance, and very few bugs for release, and the first review was great http://linuxcritic.c...Commentary.html

i suggest all those who were disappointed with ubuntu's new release or want to try linux with no experience to try mandriva, its free, and im sure you will love it http://www2.mandriva.com/ windows 7 and Mandriva are diffidently the marks to beat, although i do hope fedora and suse have good releases to make up for ubuntu's shortcomings.

[sophieking]

Win7 may stands out as the most popular tech product this year..
But I will not consider subtitute my Windows Xp to Win 7 untill microsoft has all the bugs fixed.

[PDogg]

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[garywilson]

ithink window 7 is great os