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By silicon.com, 20 December 2006 16:10

NEWS

Here's our rundown of the top ten most significant stories in the IT world over the past 12 months.

Windows Vista
After delays, more delays and a scaled-down scope, Microsoft launched its next generation operating system for businesses in November - its most significant product launch in 11 years. Five years in the making, Vista still has a lot of work to do to convince businesses they must upgrade - and consumers can't get their hands on the OS until 2007. But this was the year Microsoft made good on its promise to deliver a platform which could satisfy modern users.

$100 laptop
Nicholas Negroponte earned some time in the spotlight this year (including a silicon.com Agenda Setters nod) for his One Laptop Per Child project - which aims to bridge the digital divide by bringing computers to the developing world. Despite a high-profile snub from India, the so-called $100 laptops are "rolling off the assembly line", according to Negroponte, and should soon be warming the laps of children across the globe.

Green IT
As energy prices shot up in 2006, businesses were quick to start looking for ways to cut down on electricity usage, especially in data centres. Vendors took the lead here, with the likes of Dell, HP and Sun touting new energy-management features in servers. Along with the 'IT energy crisis', hardware recycling and a greater concern for an organisation's total 'carbon output' came to the forefront this year, with ever more companies realising what makes sense for the planet can make sense for the bottom line too.

China
Long talked about as 'the next big thing', China emerged this year as just 'the thing' - a force to be reckoned with on the global economic stage, particularly in IT. silicon.com travelled to China for a month-long fact-finding mission to see how the giant country is developing its technology economy and advancing in IT. What we found were extreme tech-savvy in pockets of the population (despite ongoing struggles with a digital divide), world-class tech companies and a growing field of motivated IT graduates.

Gates gives up day job
Bill Gates, founder of the biggest brand in IT and posterchild for the industry, has relinquished his title of chief software architect and by mid-2008 will step down from his full-time role at the company. He's not off to start a new start-up but to dedicate more energy to his charitable foundation. The departure, a gradual process that began years ago when he stepped down as CEO, signals a true changing of the guard as the founders of tech's oldest names stand back to give way to the next generation.

YouTube bought by Google
Just when you thought we'd never see another start-up created in someone's garage rise to phenomenal popularity - and then be bought for big bucks - along came YouTube. The video site represents the huge opportunity for user-generated content and seems to prove the web can indeed keep producing new hits. With copyright battles over YouTube content looming, some might argue Google has bitten off more than it can chew but few would disagree that YouTube was the internet success of 2006.

Battery recalls
It all began in August when Dell issued a recall of 4.1 million overheating Sony batteries - only to be followed by nearly every other major laptop maker. Two months later Sony admitted defeat and launched a recall of its own - bringing the total of defective batteries to 8 million. The episode cost Sony nearly $450m, tarnished its reputation and added to a difficult year which included repeated delays and over-expenditure for the flagship PlayStation 3 game consoles. The entertainment giant has a lot to prove in 2007.

ID cards
The government's plan to institute a national identity card scheme, around which silicon.com launched a campaign for greater transparency on the plans, has been underway for years and the debate over what form the ID cards take will go on for sometime to come. But it was in 2006 that the ID Card Act became law and got the debate rolling. It was also the year of considerable backpedalling as the most controversial aspect of the scheme - the universal database - was ditched just before Christmas.

iPhone
iPhone - those new VoIP phones from Linksys? Biggest story of the year? Nope. We're talking about the codename for the Apple mobile phone/MP3 player hybrid which despite persistent rumours failed to appear, making the gadget the biggest non-story of 2006. Much debate has gone into whether Apple could pull off a mobile - not the hardware design but the service - but the consensus is the iPod needs to evolve and connectivity of some sort would be a good place to start. Still one has to marvel at how much print was dedicated to what Apple has admitted is a "non-existent product for us".

Net neutrality
Earlier this year a new piece of legislation was introduced in the US which appears to allow ISPs to treat some websites differently than others, effectively creating two-tiered internet with a fast lane. The debate over whether to include an amendment which guaranteed "net neutrality" quickly turned into a 'triumph of the spirit vs the tyranny of oppression'-type battle to the death. The outcome will affect us all. Republicans and telcos are against the amendment; Democrats and web concerns like eBay and Google are for it. The fact Democrats are now in control of Congress should shape the debate in 2007 but 2006 was when it all began.