Top Developments in 2007

Posted by Hugh Pile
Dec 27, 2007 at 08:55 PM

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>I am wondering what this group thinks of as the top developments in the PIM/outliner
>world during the past 12 months. For me, two things stand out:
> >1. OneNote 2007 became
>commercially available in January.
>2. Zoot 4.5 (32-bit version) beta was released
>over the summer and continues to be refined.
> >I’m sure others of you have your own top
>developments. What are they?
> >Steve Z.

With that part of me that remains in the Windows world, I agree with Steve Z.‘s assessment, for the Windows platform.

However, I think those achievements are rivalled if not exceeded by developments on the Mac platform. I can’t point to specific PIM or outliner launches, but the growing utility of the platform, as exemplified by the launch of Leopard, must mean that it will start to challenge Windows, and not just amongst traditional Mac adopters. Although the Leopard launch wasn’t an unalloyed success, it was the first OS upgrade I’ve ever experienced (going back to DOS days) where the resulting system was significantly faster than its predecessor (as well as of course being significantly more useful). I understand the criticisms about backwards incompatibility, but for someone joining the platform afresh, it was a revelation.

Add to that the usefulness of programmes such as DevonThink (just made Spotlight-searchable), Curio (version 4 launched in 2007), Tinderbox (ditto), Things (alpha just launched), and of course, Scrivener (version 1.0 launched in 2007), and the platform appears to be enjoying a purple patch of potentially great benefit to people who think, structure and write for pleasure or for work.