Over the past few years, 3-D rendering in window managers has become a new trend in the desktop environment. OS X was the first to make fancy visual effects prominent in the way users interact with the windows in their desktop. Windows Vista has also jumped on the bandwagon with its Aero interface, though it has some performance issues to work out.

This past month has seen a flurry activity from a number of players in the Linux desktop space. Red Hat, Suse, Ubuntu, Dell, Lenovo and even Intel white box system builders are getting into the act. Is the year of the Linux desktop finally upon us or is this just another flare up generated by the Linuxworld conference in San Francisco?

Can Google save desktop Linux? Or more accurately, can online applications?

Every so often, you read on Slashdot, Digg, or some other techie news site that Linux is finally ready for the desktop. It's finally to the point that any end user could sit down at a computer and happily compute away. The applications are sufficiently sanitized and Windows-like that even Grandma can use them.

By attacking from the bottom, where Microsoft can no longer successfully compete, Linux will finally cut itself a large slice of the desktop

Google has finally released a long-awaited native Linux application: Google Desktop for Linux. As with the already shipping OS X and Windows versions, Google Desktop enables Linux users to search for text inside documents, local email messages, their Web history, and their Gmail accounts. [...] Google Desktop for Linux is based on Google's own desktop search algorithms.

In January of 2008, software code at the heart of GNU/Linux 3D applications was discovered to be non-free—a potential disaster for free software advocates hoping to see advanced graphical acceleration now common on modern operating systems.

The Linux penguin is finally marching onto more desktops. Some of the biggest names in computing are pushing harder for the Linux open-source operating system as an option for desktop PCs. Analysts say the moves show that Linux and other open-source software products are finally ready to compete on the desktop.

Universities and K-12 school districts in 29 US States and 10 countries around the world flock to "Free the Penguins" initiative to maximize desktop budget during tough economic times. Initiative extended to December 31, 2008. Up to 30 free SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and Desktop Multiplier licenses are available for the first 30 customers. Free the Penguins Initiative » |