The 100 Best Products of 2005 (#3 - OS X 10.4 Tiger)

[MacBytes]

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Category: Reviews
Link: The 100 Best Products of 2005 (#3 - OS X 10.4 Tiger) (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20050601161307)

Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)
Approved by Mudbug

[dejo]

Shouldn't we wait for 2005 to end first?

[tangerineyum]

Not only is Tiger on the list, so is
Mac Mini
ipod photo
itunes
itunes music store

hooray for our side!

[24C]

Shouldn't we wait for 2005 to end first?
Do you know something we don't?:D I reckon it'll be about the end of 2005 by the time they fix the bugs in Tiger...should be #2 by then in the PCW chart.

[nagromme]

Apple's FileMaker Pro made the list too. Here's the full ranked list:

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120763,pg,12,00.asp

Of note:

#1 Firefox
#2 Gmail
#3 OS X Tiger
#16 Google
#26 Ubuntu Linux
#28 Thunderbird
#34 iTunes
#47 Windows Media Player
#75 Mac Mini
#76 Google Desktop Search
#78 iPod Photo
#80 FileMaker Pro 7
#86 iTunes Music Player
#89 Copernic Desktop Search

A good day for Apple (6 winners), Google (3 winners), and Mozilla (2 winners)... three organizations I suspect MS is worried about. Not so good for MS... they only have 1 product listed, at #47.

EDIT: Added Ubuntu Linux and Copernic Desktop Search... since they fit the theme of "MS worries."

I'm sure many of us here use the top 3 :) I do. Firefox is only a test platform for me since I like Safari, but I do use it.

[dejo]

Do you know something we don't?:D

Mayyyy-be. ;)

[iJaz]

It also seems like PCmag are quite impressed with the whole Mac line, here (http://www.pcmag.com/compare_products/0,2575,,00.asp?a=143163,153111,153113,153115&pt=1&sid=1564)!

[aristotle1990]

tiger as #3?!!? are you serious?!?! tiger is not that big of a deal. you've got better searches and some cute widgets. big whoop. tiger's not changing the way anyone uses a computer; it's got some pretty cool features, but it's a long shot from the #3 spot here, especially considering all of the really cool products in 2005 that didn't make it onto the list. I think that it's mainly the whole aura of coolness surrounding tiger and the MASSIVE hype that prompted pcmag to do this.

[freiheit]

It's also nice to be able to say that the #1 product of the year (Firefox) and #28 (Thunderbird) are available for MacOS X. Without apps that people (switchers) might actually use, having Tiger at the #3 spot would be a hollow victory. But having the #1 product working on it makes it much sweeter.

[freiheit]

I think that it's mainly the... MASSIVE hype that prompted pcmag to do this.

Well, that's the same thing that got Windows into the top 3 every year before. Certainly Windows 98 was not deserving of such praise -- I ran it, I know. But Tiger, on top of all the great features already in OSX, is a big deal. I'm not sure, but I doubt PC Mag paid any attention to Panther, which WAS a big deal (Expose is being mimicked by Windows developers left and right -- it's an innovative, useful feature) so putting Tiger in at #3 may be partially making up for ignoring Panther but yeah, there are some good things in Tiger that make it worthy at least of being on the top 100 list.

[Deefuzz]

Best of 2005?? We've only gotten through 5 full months!

[Analog Kid]

tiger as #3?!!? are you serious?!?! tiger is not that big of a deal. you've got better searches and some cute widgets. big whoop. tiger's not changing the way anyone uses a computer; it's got some pretty cool features, but it's a long shot from the #3 spot here, especially considering all of the really cool products in 2005 that didn't make it onto the list. I think that it's mainly the whole aura of coolness surrounding tiger and the MASSIVE hype that prompted pcmag to do this.
Maybe you're ranking by different criteria than they are-- look at one and two: Mozilla and Gmail. Wouldn't call either of those new or revolutionary...

Considering how far ahead they'd have to test in order to meet a late May deadline, they probably had an advanced copy of the software at best. Likely hadn't seen Tiger when they wrote this up.

When decisions are being made in March/April about what the best products of the year are, one is a browser and one is webmail, it really isn't worth getting too hot and bothered about.

Probably not worth much flag waving over either...

[nagromme]

tiger as #3?!!? are you serious?!?! tiger is not that big of a deal.

Tiger is of course much more--both on the surface and underneath--than you listed. Whether it's worth the upgrade from the Excellent Panther OS is a decision each person must make for themselves. Your answer to that may not be the same as mine ;)

But when PC World considers Tiger a Best Product, they're not just looking at Tiger vs. Panther, they're looking at Tiger as a whole product. Tiger is more than just the changes: everything Panther does is in Tiger too :)

And as Operating Systems go, it's hard to find anything that can touch Tiger. It's nice that PC World recognizes that.

[Stella]

Eclipse would be good...

.. if they could sort out the SWT bug...

... does anyone know why eclipse was implemented using carbon instead of native?

[dontmatter]

Who wins:

Apple vs. Mircosoft: Apple!
Apple 3rd party software vs. MS third party software: MS third party software.
Apple vs. Dell: DELL

So is apple a software or a hardware company? And is it the OS or the third party that matters?

Or is any of this stuff worthwhile in the absolute least, at ALL?

NO.

[bentley]

GMail is amazing!

[GodBless]

Who wins:

Apple 3rd party software vs. MS third party software: MS third party software.
More software doesn't at all mean better software.

Apple vs. Dell: DELL
More hardware sales doesn't mean better hardware.

You say Apple wins vs. Microsoft but remember by your standards more is better and that means Microsoft wins because they sell a higher quantity of products. You should know that quality always beats quantity. The few and far in-between have a BMW just as the few and far in-between have OS X. By no means does this mean that Apple and BMW lose because most people don't use their products.

[GodBless]

Did somebody see a serious problem with Windows Media Player being on that list? Where is QuickTime 7? It has H.264, totally revised interface and features, etc. What makes Windows Media Player any different now in 2005 than what it was in 2001 when XP was released? Why are old unrevised products making the list?

[swheeler]

It seems like Safari had a lot of Firefox's features first, but they don't mention it once in the article on Firefox, even when discussing other non-IE browsers.

[840quadra]

like the first poster stated, a little early..

if it were up to the editor, everyone would be selling 2007 cars at this point in time. The funny thing is, there are a few 2006 models going on the market soon enough!!

[Platform]

Shouldn't we wait for 2005 to end first?

Yes...this always happens.....2005 is done in 2004

Magazines give out july issues now :eek: :eek: :eek: :confused:

[nagromme]

Did somebody see a serious problem with Windows Media Player being on that list? Where is QuickTime 7? It has H.264, totally revised interface and features, etc. What makes Windows Media Player any different now in 2005 than what it was in 2001 when XP was released? Why are old unrevised products making the list?

I'd say the "2005" headline simply is because that's when it's published, and calling it the Best of 2004 right now would not fly :D

So if QuickTime 7 was out too late for this batch, it sure ought to appear in the 2006 list!

[GodBless]

I'd say the "2005" headline simply is because that's when it's published, and calling it the Best of 2004 right now would not fly :D

So if QuickTime 7 was out too late for this batch, it sure ought to appear in the 2006 list!

But QuickTime 7 came out the morning of the day that Tiger was released and Tiger made the list but QuickTime didn't.

[nagromme]

I still think QT7 lost out for its newness, though. It wasn't on the radar long enough. (In fact, it's not even out for PC yet--which will make it a better candidate.)

Tiger had a lot more advance awareness/mindshare than QT7 did.

[dubbz]

What makes Windows Media Player any different now in 2005 than what it was in 2001 when XP was released? Why are old unrevised products making the list?

Windows Media Player 10, which was mentioned in the article, was released this year (or maybe it was late 2004, I don't remember). Windows XP includes Windows Media Player 9.

Now, if if it's worthy of a place in the #100 is another matter... Personally, I'm not particularly found of WMP, but alot of Windows users seem to like it, and supposedly WMP 10 improves a great deal upon WMP 9.

Edit: And I'm glad to see Firefox at #1. It's well deserved.

[wdlove]

Shouldn't we wait for 2005 to end first?

If something comes out that is even better, the list could always be updated. Still this is very good news for Apple, having six items on the list is awesome.

[aristotle1990]

Tiger is of course much more--both on the surface and underneath--than you listed.

a lot of the higher end features like core audio and core image are only useful to developers. end users will only make use of a few things, namely spotlight and dashboard.

Maybe you're ranking by different criteria than they are-- look at one and two: Mozilla and Gmail. Wouldn't call either of those new or revolutionary...

mozilla is revolutionary: for the first time, a FREE browser impacts the market share of ie, and has mad nice security features and open-source support. gmail's not that important, again, it's the google hype.
:cool:

[Doctor Q]

It's nice to see the Mac mini on the Top PC (http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120763,pg,2,00.asp) list. In this context, "PC" means personal computer, not Windows computer or x86 computer.

[BornAgainMac]

What would make Gmail and Firefox deserve a ranking of #1 and #2? I have 2 GBs of space for my hotmail account. Firefox feels like a downgrade from Safari RSS. Tiger beats these two products hands down. A notebook network card? Come on. I don't even need one because it is built-in my Powerbook and most notebooks have this feature built-in also. Tiger also will do nothing for a Windows user. This list is just a random selection of products with a bogus ranking.