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10 Best IT Products Of 2006
digihome writes "CRN.com chooses the ten best new products of 2006, including the best development tools, server, notebook and storage device. Some of the choices may surprise you ... such as their choice for operating system of the year." From the article: "With Windows Vista, Microsoft has refreshed the user desktop experience. While debate rages over whether the five-year wait was worth it, the truth is Vista is pretty much the only game in town. One may question whether Vista should be bestowed with Product of the Year recognition in the operating system category. But the product unquestionably brings new features and capabilities to solution providers that in turn promise new revenue generation dialogues with end users."
But the product unquestionably brings new features and capabilities to solution providers that in turn promise new revenue generation dialogues with end users.
Wow! It must be really cool if it does that!
Tiger was released LAST year so it shouldn't be considered a winner for this year....oh wait, that ISN'T Tiger? Well I'll be damned....
Monstar L
Thank You
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
So a product that will be released in 2007 is the product of the year in 2006? Now I'd defend Microsoft to a point, but this is absolute bullshit. Vista should not win this at all. It's not even released to the mass market yet.
Nice, they put them on ten pages...filled with wonderful ads and other Christmas goodies.
Anyways, here's the top ten, Karma Whore, Beeeeatch!
WEB DEVELOPMENT TOOL
DataDirect Technologies Stylus Studio 2007
SECURITY SOFTWARE
Astaro Security Gateway
NETWORKING HARDWARE
Server Partners File Engine
STORAGE
Intel SS4000-E
APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT TOOL
Compuware DevPartner 8.0
IMAGING
Minolta Magicolor 7450
NOTEBOOK
Hewlett-Packard Compaq NC6400
APPLICATION SOFTWARE
Microsoft Exchange 2007
OPERATING SYSTEM
Microsoft Vista Enterprise Edition
SERVER
SuperServer 5015M-MR
The big problem with this list is that it's mislabeled as the "10 Best IT Products of 2006," when it should be labeled "Ad Copy for the 10 IT Products whose sales force managed to sweet talk the analysts who wrote this thing enough to be included."
I've read enough trade magazines to recognize that the blurbs on all of these products come pretty much verbatim from the sales office of the respective companies.
This article is purely for VARs. None of the blurbs are anything close to actual reviews. Having worked for a company whose product looked cool but had major problems under the hood (due to feature creep and unrealistic deadlines primarily), but still managed to get great reviews from "analysts," I can tell you it's distressingly easy to get publications like this to give glowing reviews, even if what you're offering is either broken or primarily vapor.
the truth is Vista is pretty much the only game in town
If I still cared I'd throw a fit at that comment. Instead I'll happily continue to use Ubuntu on my laptop and OSX on my Desktop. Vista who?
This is a VAR mag, i.e. for resellers.
Every "best product" description includes suggested pricing, margin and contact details.
Of course in that respect Vista is THE product for 2007.
I will never fully trust a gui to develop another gui.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
CRN = Computer Reseller News. Of course they're going to love Vista!-- rolling out Vista will be a boon to computer resellers everywhere, because few businesses are going to bother upgrading the vast majority of their existing machines, they're going to replace them with hardware beefy enough to run Vista with most of its bells and whistles.
This is hardly an award given for technical merit. Vista represents a full trough for all the revenue-hungry pigs to crowd around.
From their Media Kit page:
Mission Statement
CRN drives sales by empowering VARs and technology integrators with the vital news and technology information they need to generate demand and grow revenue. CRN is the newspaper of record for the channel. For 24 years, VARs, Solution Providers, technology integrators and IT consultants have turned to CRN first each week for immediate and actionable information.
This has nothing to do with "best of breed" or anything like that. It's purely about MAXIMIZING REVENUE by doing as little as possible.
This guy's the limit!
Any such list that includes Windows Vista as the "Best Operating System" loses all credibility.
I have been running Vista for a few weeks now and it is nothing more than an incremental improvement on Windows XP/Server 2k3.
Given the resources of Microsoft, the worldwide importance of the OS and the time taken for development, Vista is a disgrace.
-- Jeff P. Realname
Adblock Plus blocked 44 out of 90 objects on each page (not including referrer links or sponsor links!)
so >50% of each page is adverts and then the "article" (if i can call it that) is spread over 10 pages, i guess there is no dignity on that site
adding content must be so inconvenient them, at what point does a site go from providing a quality service to becoming a spam linkfarm ?
thank goodness for adblock and a hostsfile, good example of how to piss off a visitor
I mean, in the sense that they've been mucking about with it for at least that long. Isn't it Cairo, finally arrived? Something like that, anyway.
Of course, it won't really be all there until next year, so perhaps they're being premature in including it on the list. Also, it will indisputably be the product of the year next year in terms of money.
One almost wonders if it made the list this year so they can omit it from next year, when other OSes might embarrass it. Not to name any names.
I am the one true god. However, as an atheist, I don't believe in myself. I guess I have a self-esteem problem.
Amazing? Why should the lack of Open Source products in a site whose mission is to "drive sales by empowering VARs and technology integrators with the vital news and technology information they need to generate demand and grow revenue" be amazing?
Open Source is "Best of Breed" when it comes to generate advantages for the users, not to "drive sales".
This is thinly disguised link-bait from a site I've never heard of. Is there any special reason that it was deemed /. worthy, apart from the fact that their inclusion of Vista will incite a vicious troll war?
To make things even worse, each of the 10 "winners" appears on a separate page to pump up ad impressions.
I actually own the workstation edition of this laptop (the model from last year, nw8240). I think that while the specs (at that time) were top notch and could not be beat in a smaller package, the build quality of the computer is kind of bad. The casing is quite easy to break and is easier to look "beat up." The screen is also questionable, as mine had dead pixels and "yellow" spots after less than six months of use. The service department of my school replaced that computer's motherboard two times in the last year alone, and I am not one to put my computers through the rough.
Why aren't any of IBM/Lenovo's Thinkpad offerings on that list? I see that computer used more often than the high-end HP's in business anyway, which is well deserved because they are rock solid and last a really long time. I had their 760L from 10 years ago working until 2 years ago when someone took the computer and smashed it to the floor. And even after that it still worked! The same went for my Thinkpad 600.
If my computer's internals hadn't been replaced, the thing would have been gone in less than six months, which is unacceptable to me.
or the year before that.
So it seems to me that this new "best operating system" category was tailor-made for Vista. Add to that the fact that Vista is being named product of the year for a year where it's been available for companies for less than a month, hardly enough time for companies to migrate, and it looks to me like a marketing puff piece written, or funded, by Microsoft.
This CMP lot are part of the United Business Media Group. This is a very well connected little organization. The Directors' biographies read like a who's who of British Industry. Fingers into AOL, fingers into banks and big insurance companies, fingers into major Indian outsourcing companies etc etc etc.
Of course their reviews may be neutral and may uphold journalistic principles.
Adjust your tinfoil hats to maximum shield strength folks this publication looks like the Illuminati UK Branch IT Monthly.
Pirates can TOTALLY take out ninjas because CANNONS!
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
WEB DEVELOPMENT TOOL
DataDirect Technologies Stylus Studio 2007
"Stylus Studio 2007 XML Enterprise Suite is priced at $795. Oak Park, Calif.-based DataDirect offers average margins between 10 percent and 35 percent. Seasonal spifs also are offered."
SECURITY SOFTWARE
Astaro Security Gateway
"Pricing is based on active users and concurrent connections. Configurations for as few as 10 users to unlimited users and connections are available. Suggested pricing for a sample configuration allowing 250 active users and 512,000 connections, including subscriptions and one year of maintenance, is $11,885."
NETWORKING HARDWARE
Server Partners File Engine
"Prices start at $235 per month for a unit containing two mirrored 120-Gbyte hard drives. The monthly fee covers installation, integration, monitoring and maintenance. Updates are performed automatically as needed. Configurations with larger capacities are available at a higher price. A built-in double-layer DVD burner lets users put up to 18 Gbytes of backup files on removable media from an easy-to-use push-button interface. To prevent user tampering, no mouse, keyboard or monitor come with the appliance."
STORAGE
Intel SS4000-E
"The SS4000-E is available as a barebones unit with no hard drives for $550. That's a beautiful thing for system builders that want to configure it themselves. It's also available preconfigured with four 500-Gbyte hard drives for $2,000."
APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT TOOL
Compuware DevPartner 8.0
???
IMAGING
Minolta Magicolor 7450
~$2.5K - Froogle
NOTEBOOK
Hewlett-Packard Compaq NC6400
"Solution providers have a dizzying array of options for configuring a unique notebook for their customers. Specifically, the basic nc6400 (en362UT) starts at $1,199 and comes with an Intel T550 processor, 512 Mbytes of RAM and a 60-Gbyte hard disk. Meanwhile, the higher-end model nc6400 (RA264AT) retails for $1,549 and comes with an Intel T2400 processor, 1 Gbyte of RAM and a 60-Gbyte hard disk. All models feature a three-year warranty and weigh as little as 5 pounds."
APPLICATION SOFTWARE
Microsoft Exchange 2007
"Pricing for server licenses and standard Client Access Licenses is the same as Exchange 2003, but Exchange 2007 introduces the Enterprise Client Access License, which includes Software Assurance. The price for Exchange Enterprise is $3,999 and the Client Access License is $67, which includes calendaring, mobile device access and basic antispam."
OPERATING SYSTEM
Microsoft Vista Enterprise Edition
???
SERVER
SuperServer 5015M-MR
"The SuperServer 5015M-MR has an expansion slot that supports PCI and PCI-X cards, and it supports PCI-Express x8 cards using an optional riser board. It only has one 3.5-inch hard drive bay but will accept up to 8 Gbytes of memory. The server is optimized for and sized right for security appliances such as firewalls and VPNs. Supermicro sells this server as a barebones white-box unit for only $600, and fully configured units are available from distributors. A typical configuration would contain a 3.2GHz dual-core Pentium D processor, 4 Gbytes of memory and a 300-Gbyte SATA hard drive, all for less than $1,500."
That didn't stop them from picking a product that won't be generally released until NEXT year...