Online poll picks the cream of 2001

The latest version of Linux from Red Hat, the Palm m505 handheld and a firewall from Cisco Systems were singled out by worldwide IT executives as some of the best software and hardware products available last year.

Close to 300 IT executives delivered their opinions on a range of groupings, from software development applications to best server hardware, via an online poll on Datamation.com, EarthWeb and Internet.com during December.

Red Hat Linux 7.2 came top in the Network and Systems Software category, ousting last year's winner, Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server.

Dell came out top in two categories. The power-packed Dell Precision Workstation 530 took the number one slot in the Client Systems, Desktop product group, while the Dell Inspiron 8100 was the best laptop.

Cisco Systems' PIX501 firewall won the Security category, and IBM's z900 topped the Server Hardware category.

The Palm m505 was awarded the number one spot in Client Systems, Mobile, followed by Compaq's iPaq.

Microsoft's Data Analyzer took the top spot in the Business Intelligence Software category, while Business Object's Application Foundation came in second.

In the Ecommerce section WebTrends Live 3.0 from NetIQ came in at the top, while PeopleSoft 8 Supplier Relationship Management took the laurels for Enterprise Applications. Brocade's Silkworm 3800 Enterprise Fabric Switch took first place for Network Infrastructure.

There was a three-way tie for the top position in the Application Development category between IBM's Websphere Studio 4.0, Macromedia's JRun 3 and UltraDev 4 Studio, and Sun Microsystems' Java 2 SDK Enterprise Edition Version 1.3.