2003's Top 10 The Year's Greatest Hits in Windows Software Eric Grevstad
Mon 12/8/03 -- We said last year that WinPlanet's annual Products of the Year And/Or Holiday Gift Suggestions list presents the software that's made the biggest impression on us over the past 12 months. That's still true, just as it's true that the Windows platform remains the unquestionable choice for PC users seeking the largest software selection and smoothest interoperability. But to be honest, this year, appreciation of worthy applications combined with sightings of hairline cracks in Microsoft's mortar.
Now, a few cracks don't mean the fortress walls are tumbling down. But corporate IT managers and small-business proprietors this year couldn't help being affected by Outlook e-mail worms or security breakdowns, or hearing a story or two about some city, country, or agency defecting from Windows and Office to open-source alternatives (or about Microsoft's dodging a defection by negotiating away some of the bundling or mandatory-upgrading terms it imposes on most companies).
And while Redmond ended the year with its usual razzle-dazzle by previewing the next version of Windows, the seamless-filing-system-meets-spiffy-eye-candy "Longhorn" isn't likely to ship until 2006. Meanwhile, users geeky enough to play with hard-disk partitions and burning CDs from downloadable ISO images can show off elegant, self-booting, automatic-hardware-configuring Linux desktops complete with full libraries of applications, such as Knoppix and Mepis Linux, while commercial distributions like SUSE Linux 9.0 and Xandros Desktop 2 offer not only slick, Windows-lookalike functionality but the option to run popular Windows applications. Frankly, Linux moved so fast this year we doubt it'll stand still in 2004 — which may be why Microsoft is moving so fast to stake out beyond-plain-PC territory like the Media Center and Tablet PC.
Anyway, back to the present and on with the countdown of the best software that reached the WinPlanet office this year. We emphatically deny that the program we spent the most hours with was the freeware super-Tetris clone Cubemaster Gold.
10. Google Toolbar and Deskbar: More evidence that it's Google's world, we just live in it — free-to-download, an-hour-to-forget-all-thoughts-of-deleting add-ins for Internet Explorer 5.5 that not only give you all-the-time access to the Internet's supreme search site (and the nifty Google News), but other conveniences like a first-class pop-up ad blocker. The new Deskbar isn't strictly an add-in so much as a replacement for IE that hides in the Windows Taskbar and pops up a mini-browser window whenever you have the urge to search; it makes the Microsoft Office Research Pane look like, well, a big pain.
9. System Mechanic 4 Professional: After Intuit's trying it with TurboTax, then being forced to beat a retreat with abject apologies in USA Today and Wall Street Journal ads, will Symantec be able to ride out the consumer backlash from adding Microsoft-style product activation to its 2004 Norton AntiVirus, SystemWorks, Personal Firewall, and other utilities? We don't know, but we welcome this year's addition of Panda firewall and virus protection to Iolo Technologies' $70 system optimization and housekeeping package.
