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PC World's 50 Best Tech Products of All Time

Posted by kdawson on from the time-starts-in-1977 dept.

Ant writes "PC World picks the 50 best tech products of all time. Apple holds down seven places in the list, Microsoft two, and open source software (Red Hat Linux) one. The top five, according to PC World, are: Netscape Navigator (1994), Apple II (1977), TiVo HDR110 (1999), Napster (1999), and Lotus 1-2-3 for DOS (1983).

7 of 399 comments (clear)

  1. The list by pedestrian+crossing · · Score: 5, Informative

    1. Netscape Navigator (1994)
          2. Apple II (1977)
          3. TiVo HDR110 (1999)
          4. Napster (1999)
          5. Lotus 1-2-3 for DOS (1983)
          6. Apple iPod (2001)
          7. Hayes Smartmodem (1981)
          8. Motorola StarTAC (1996)
          9. WordPerfect 5.1 (1989)
        10. Tetris (1985)
        11. Adobe Photoshop 3.0 (1994)
        12. IBM ThinkPad 700C (1992)
        13. Atari VCS/2600 (1977)
        14. Apple Macintosh Plus (1986)
        15. RIM BlackBerry 857 (2000)
        16. 3dfx Voodoo3 (1999)
        17. Canon Digital Elph S100 (2000)
        18. Palm Pilot 1000 (1996)
        19. id Software Doom (1993)
        20. Microsoft Windows 95 (1995)
        21. Apple iTunes 4 (2003)
        22. Nintendo Game Boy (1989)
        23. Iomega Zip Drive (1994)
        24. Spybot Search & Destroy (2000)
        25. Compaq Deskpro 386 (1986)
        26. CompuServe (1982)
        27. Blizzard World of Warcraft (2004)
        28. Aldus PageMaker (1985)
        29. HP LaserJet 4L (1993)
        30. Apple Mac OS X (2001)
        31. Nintendo Entertainment System (1985)
        32. Eudora (1988)
        33. Sony Handycam DCR-VX1000 (1995)
        34. Apple Airport Base Station (1999)
        35. Brøderbund The Print Shop (1984)
        36. McAfee VirusScan (1990)
        37. Commodore Amiga 1000 (1985)
        38. ChipSoft TurboTax (1985)
        39. Mirabilis ICQ (1996)
        40. Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 (1992)
        41. Apple HyperCard (1987)
        42. Epson MX-80 (1980)
        43. Central Point Software PC Tools (1985)
        44. Canon EOS Digital Rebel (2003)
        45. Red Hat Linux (1994)
        46. Adaptec Easy CD Creator (1996)
        47. PC-Talk (1982)
        48. Sony Mavica MVC-FD5 (1997)
        49. Microsoft Excel (1985)
        50. Northgate OmniKey Ultra (1987)

    --
    A house divided against itself cannot stand.
  2. That is not the outcome ! by __aahlyu4518 · · Score: 4, Informative

    It is the order of the list on which you can vote !!!

  3. Voodoo 3 sucked. by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Voodoo 3 lacked 32 bit rendering and came out months before nVidia brought out the GeForce card.

    It was, in short, the beginning of the end for 3dfx. Why would you promote that?!

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  4. One page link by bobdotorg · · Score: 3, Informative

    Unless you enjoy wading through 11 pages of served ads:

    http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,130207 /printable.html

    --
    __ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
  5. Huh? by MadTinfoilHatter · · Score: 5, Informative

    45. Red Hat Linux (1994)
    Picking a watershed Linux distribution is tough. Literally hundreds have existed over the years, though only a few have advanced the state of the art. Red Hat was critically important for beginning the move (however tentative) toward making Linux beginner-friendly and easier to install. While development of Red Hat was discontinued in 2003, it directly spawned successors like Ubuntu, which aim to make desktop use of Linux commonplace.

    WTF!? Ubuntu is based on Debian, not Red Hat. Also, development of Red Hat didn't stop in 2003 - it was just split into RHEL & Fedora. Pretty har to take an article that flawed seriously.

    1. Re:Huh? by TheNetAvenger · · Score: 3, Informative

      Compuserve?... That bloated, expensive, pretend internet thing that became AOL... that Compuserve? In the top 50?


      Prior to the days when kiddies expected a specific Compuserve interface that was bloated, there were the days that Compuserve was a rather robust community BBS system that was complete text based interface giving access to extensive forums, news searches, stocks, weather and other services.

      Even MS required beta testers to have Compuserve IDs to participate in Beta programs prior to the Web.

      For its time Compuserve was the king of online communities and did it better than anyone else. Remember this is from the timeframe when the 'Internet' was limited to gov and edu exclusively, and not everyone had access, compuserve was the 'commercial' version of connecting regular people.

      Also this is where Al Gore comes into play when he worked to get the internet opened to everyone, and thus resulting in there no longer being a need for Compuserve as a content provider or connection point.

  6. Re:Commodore C64 by marol · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, they didn't forget it, they bundled it with TRS-80 under the Apple II entry, "competitors like the Commodore 64 and TRS-80 Color Computer were mere toys by comparison". And that's pretty much where I stopped reading...