2002's Top 10 The Year's Greatest Hits in Windows Software Eric Grevstad
Mon 12/9/02 -- It's that time of year again -- and while other sites run separate articles for "Products of the Year" and "Holiday Gift Guide" tallies, WinPlanet wonders, why would you give your friends (or yourself) anything but the best? So we've combined our salutations with your shopping list: Here, in reverse order, are the 10 software programs that made the biggest impressions on us -- whether for innovation, value, elegant design, market-impact significance, or all of the above -- in 2002.
It's no secret the software arena is a lot quieter than it used to be -- even setting aside the global doldrums in IT spending, too many of the masses get PCs preinstalled with Windows and Office and never even notice the existence of other applications. But even in this overcast environment, it's hard to pick just 10 praiseworthy programs, so we'll begin by listing some honorable mentions and personal favorites:
In the personal information management (PIM) category, 2002 was a lackluster year for handheld hardware sales but saw a splendid freeware release of the Palm Desktop 4.1 calendar and contact manager supplied with Palm PDAs. If you saw our review last week, you know we're also high on Micro Logic's $150 free-form organizer Info Select.
Like you, we use Microsoft Word at work, but it's time to confess: Ever since our October 2001 review, our home word processor has been the fast, thrifty ($35) Atlantis Ocean Mind, which has seen steady improvements such as on-the-fly spell checking and error correction, HTML and Word DOC import/export, and multiple columns (but still, frustratingly, no headers and footers). Sony's Click to DVD is ineligible for Top 10 status since it's only available bundled with the company's new DVD-burner-equipped desktops and laptops, not sold separately, but if you get a chance, check it out and see the Windows world's worthy rival to Apple's iDVD 2.
Finally, at the risk of bringing Marley's Ghost to the Christmas feast, Windows followers should also check out Red Hat Linux 8.0 and Xandros Desktop. They're the year's smoothest new Linux distributions, aimed at businesses and consumers respectively (though business managers will also like Xandros' inclusion of CodeWeavers Crossover Office to run many Microsoft Office programs), and if not dire threats at least genuine alternatives to Windows XP. Now, while Microsoft licks the self-inflicted wounds of its price-gouging, rebellion-causing Licensing 6.0 subscription plan, on to the countdown.
10. InterVideo WinDVD Platinum: It's hard enough to string wires under rugs and around baseboards for a living-room home theater's surround-sound speaker system; for most of us, it's an unjustifiable pain to hook up five speakers plus subwoofer to a PC.
That's why we're glad InterVideo has upgraded its deluxe software DVD player -- which already offered nifty features like compressing a movie to play in the time you allot -- with not only DivX and higher-quality video and 96KHz/24-bit audio support, but Dolby Laboratories' new Virtual Speaker technology that gives a surprisingly realistic simulation of five wraparound sound sources from just two desktop speakers. WinDVD Platinum costs $100 (with $50 upgrades available for previous-version or OEM users), but it's a tempting treat.
9. Kodak EasyShare 2.1: As with Palm Desktop, the software bundled with (and in our opinion, the best thing about) Kodak's beginner-friendly digital cameras is now free for users of other brands to download. EasyShare makes organizing, tweaking, and ordering high-quality prints of digital photos, well, easy.
8. Mozilla 1.2.1: We're not stupid; we don't think Windows' built-in Internet Explorer will ever lose its overwhelming dominance among Web browsers; but we're happy that 2002 saw the long-awaited release of the open-source browser and e-mail program behind the latest Netscape and AOL clients, in trimmed-down and eye-opening form. It's still a work in progress (witness the quick replacement of the buggy version 1.2), and might soon be upstaged by the fast, fast-approaching-release Opera 7. But Mozilla has earned your attention.
