Product Of The Year: Windows 7
The bottom line: Microsoft has raised the bar with Windows 7 that had been lowered with Vista. It will be of interest to see if the promise that Windows 7 RC shows will restore any customer's faith that may have wavered with Vista. For a segment of IT that's been in the doldrums, the PC space needed Microsoft to do well with Windows 7 for any hope of a significant refresh cycle in 2010. On its own, Windows 7 is what it needed to be: a better-performing, more secure, less-annoying and less hardware-intensive Windows.
Microsoft has to be applauded for its efforts not just because it's a key driver of growth in IT, but also because it had everything to lose if this thing was not built right (what with Apple and the Linux world breathing down its neck.)
It's a great product. It does the job. It's our product of the year.
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