Well, hopefully this is the end of the annual “This is the year for Linux on the Desktop” idiocy. I’ve never believed Linux is a good desktop OS. It simply lacks the tools you need for a desktop. Although some open source stuff is decent, it isn’t well enough linked into the corporate infrastructure to matter. Linux’s strength is as a server of VM host. It simply excels at that. The fact it’s open source also means you can do some pretty nice things from a security perspective. Hopefully the Linux folks will now focus on having a singular GUI (instead of wasting effort on a variety of them and balkanizing their efforts) and focusing on Linux’s strengths. Time will tell. Update: Spoke too soon. Over at Dive Into Mark he switches his folks to Linux from a Mac. Granted, an ancient Mac, but the reasons make sense — though he should have gotten them a Mini, it has enough “oomph”, methinks. I have thought of using an old Windows box to the same effect for my parents. To be honest, I can see Linux being useful for people who only want to interact with the Internet via a browser
