Editor's Picks

From time to time we come across a piece of hardware or software that truly stands out above and beyond the rest. When such an item does impress us, we will be sure to post it here and share it with you. These are the technologies that we recommend to our clients as well as what we use ourselves. None of these picks are sponsored and New Jersey Computers receives absolutely no compensation for these picks. We don't receive money, free software or hardware, a link on the companies site, NOTHING. These are truly and genuinely our favorite tools to get the job done when the situation permits. If you have a recommendation, feel free to email us and let us know. If it's something we aren't aware of, we would be happy to try it out. If it is something we are aware of, we will let you know why it's not our top pic.

Operating System:

Linux Fedora 11: Reign

We have always been a fan of Linux. We love the idea of something that is free as well as the idea of people contributing to make Linux better for no reason other than the genuine desire to have a stable, fast, trouble free operating system. Although we are Microsoft certified in a number of area's we are not fans of their confusing and expensive license fees, their buggy software and the fact that rather than advancing on one stable operating system like Windows XP, and continuing to make it better, they prefer to churn out poorly planned and coded operating systems just for the sake of making money. With the exception of Windows Millennium, I see every Microsoft operating system since MS-DOS as an improvement upon the last. Unfortunately, that ended with Windows XP. If Microsoft wasn't as concerned about making 'new' money as they were about making people happy there would be no need for Vista or Windows 7. Windows XP could have been improved upon and tweaked and they could have taken a great operating system and made it even better. However, since there is no new money in improving Windows XP, Microsoft has moved on and some day Windows XP will no longer be supported, forcing people to switch to something new.

Some day, Linux will be a viable alternative! Linux has come a long way fast. From a business perspective, I still have to recommend Microsoft Windows XP to my clients because, let's face it, 95% of the world is Microsoft. Linux has had its problems. It has never been so user friendly that anyone can use it. It has had driver issues and compatibility issues with top software titles. However, the most recent edition of Fedora impressed me more than any Linux operating system I have ever used. Fedora can be run as a desktop or server, all from the same install files. It is robust, fast, clean and user friendly. I had absolutely no issues with drivers, even installed on several different hardware platforms, and all of my printers were recognized and installed with drivers included in the default installation. Not even Windows XP recognized my printers without drivers from HP.

I think we are still a few years away from mainstream Linux. I think Wine (the software that allows you to run PC based software on Linux) needs substantial improvement and more open source software titles need to be written to replace programs like QuickBooks. However, I am really excited about Fedora and I believe we may be less than six years away from Linux owning more market share than Apple and being a serious competitor to Microsoft Windows. For now, I must still recommend Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2008 to my clients, however Fedora is my choice at home and in the office.

Office Suite:

Open Office

Like Linux, Open Office is FREE. That's right, it's totally free. Open source software written by a community of coders who do it just for the love of programming and for a stable piece of free software. Unlike Linux, Open Office is ready for main stream use TODAY. We use Open Office in our office and we recommend it to clients. With Microsoft Office Professional costing $499.95 a copy, Open Office is a serious alternative that's ready for installation today. Open Office has many of the features that Microsoft Office has and is compatible with Microsoft Office files. That's right, open a Microsoft Word file or a Microsoft Excel file with no problem. Now, I should point out that the compatibility between MS Office and Open Office is not perfect. Open Office also lacks some features such as Microsoft One Note and Microsoft Outlook. However, it does contain Writer (MS Word), Calc (MS Excel), Impress (MS Publisher), Draw (MS Paint), and Base (MS Access). And considering you save $500, I'd say you should at least install it and give it a shot. It's a very nice office suite and it's ready for prime time. Open Office is our pick for top Office Suite!

Antivirus Software:

NOD32

We test antivirus software often and we test it extensively. Antivirus software tends to change more often than most. What's top dog today may be in the dog house tomorrow. For about a year now we have been recommending NOD32 by Eset as our favorite antivirus program and it continues to impress us. NOD32 is lightweight, yet thorough and detects many infections that other 'top' brands ignore. We recently switched one of our clients from a name brand antivirus and on one machine alone NOD32 found over 4,000 infected files. That's right, FOUR THOUSAND. NOD32 for Exchange went ballistic when it replaced the 'other' exchange program and immediately found hundreds of infected files on the Exchange server, including several that passed through and infected PC's in the network while the server was protected with that 'other' Exchange antivirus software. Additionally, the server we installed this on went form a sustained 65% use of both processors to about 27% use and it immediately freed up 6GB of the OS partition. NOD32 is the best antivirus software available today. We use it on our own systems and servers and we recommend it to all of our clients.

Antispyware Software:

MALWAREBYTES

We test antispyware software as often as we test antivirus software. Our favorite pick for antivirus is Malwarebytes. It is currently the best program out there and detects just about anything we come across. It is one of only two programs we found that completely removes the Antivirus 2009 infection which cripples many machines. However, The best part about Malwarebytes is its price. IT'S FREE! That's right, its free. They do make a paid version and it's well worth the $20 as it does one major thing the free version does not. The paid version runs in memory constantly protecting you while the free version only scans and removes when you run it. Some infections cannot be removed once they get their rootkits installed in your system. Unfortunately, Malwarebytes has one major flaw for enterprise environments. It lacks a centrally managed control panel. You can deploy it via group policy or a third party application, however in an environment with hundreds of machines it lacks a centrally managed control panel to check the status of each machine. For enterprise deployment we recommend Counterspy by Sunbelt Software. It is the only other application we have tested that removes the Antivirus 2009 infection and it has a very nice central management console that allows you to both deploy Counterspy from one PC or server and to view, manage and run reports on ALL pc's in the domain from that one server or workstation.

Malwarebytes is the best antispyware program on the market, but you have to go with Counterspy if you have a domain with more than ten or so computers.

Backup Software:

Acronis

You want to see grown men cry? Follow me to work and you'll set it more often than you believe. I can't tell you how many times I have emphatically recommended better backup systems only to be sending that clients hard drive out to drive savers at a future date. People will spend $15k on a server, but then insist on using the free backup software that comes with it. People, can you put a price on your data? Most people cannot until it's too late.

Acronis makes the best backup software on the market. We tested backup suites thoroughly a year ago and Acronis had so many features that placed it above the pack. Whether you just want the $50 version for a desktop or the $800 version for a server, Acronis is hands down the best backup software on the market. The server version features such benefits as backing up to multiple locations, email notifications, and Universal Restore which enables you to restore your backup to dissimilar hardware. The software has no problems backing up Exchange or any server app that we have thrown at it. The backups are fast and we have yet to encounter a test backup that contained corrupted data. I also love the snap restore feature in which a backup is written to an alternate internal hard drive. When a failure occurs you can boot into Windows within minutes and the restore continues in the background while you work. If you request a file, the software expedites that file and then continues with the restore. This feature is better than mirrored drives because there is no performance loss during daily use which is common with mirrored drives. The backups to the alternate internal drive run when you schedule them. Either at night or several times during the day. Acronis also backs up virtual machines. We have tested the virtual machine backups and they are great. You can also use P2V or V2P backups. That is, you can create a virtual machine from the backup of a physical machine or create a physical machine from the backup of a virtual machine.

Acronis True Image Echo Server or Acronis True Image Echo Workstation is our pick for the best backup software application.