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An IDG News Service reporter offers her picks for the year's top IT stories. BY NANCY WEIL
1 AT ODDS OVER OFFSHORING
Furious debate over the offshoring of IT jobs and services jobs will continue, sparking another round of state and U.S. federal "protectionist" legislative proposals early in the year. Most of those proposals will wither and die. Economists and policy analysts will argue back and forth about whether IT jobs are indeed being "lost" to India, China and other nations or whether the movement is predictable churn in a global economy. The thousands who continue to be laid off won't care to hear the debate, since they will have already formed their opinions about what is going on and why. ("Corporate greed" will be the answer for many of them.)
2 OPEN-SOURCE UNDER ATTACK
Hackers will successfully launch an attack on a widely used open-source application (Firefox?). Although it will be quickly patched and not lead to the sort of turmoil and damage that has occurred with other major attacks on proprietary software, it will make those who use open-source software realize that they really do need to update and apply patches expeditiously. Otherwise, Sober will continue to spawn variants and security will remain a top concern.
3 GAMING CONSOLE BATTLE ROYALE
Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Co.'s Revolution game consoles will prove to be worth the wait in long lines and will globally outsell Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 by a wide margin. The Xbox will find more favor in the U.S., but even there it will lose its luster when the competing consoles hit the market. Game Boy Micro will be to the handheld gaming market what the iPod Nano is to the MP3 market - having one will be a universal sign of cool.
4 VISTA MAKES A SPLASHY DEBUT
Speaking of Microsoft, the software monolith will frequently make news, as it does every year. The company is putting extreme pressure on itself to deliver Windows Vista on schedule, so expect the operating system to be available on a PC near you by this time next year. Microsoft also hopes Vista's launch will make a huge splash, so don't be surprised if the company coaxes an aging rock band out...