Year after year, industry pundits state, "This is the year of Linux," and year after year, those same pundits say, "The market is just not ready yet." So the big question here is, "Where are the Linux desktops?" For the most part, they're not anywhere.

Since the turn of the decade or so, it's been regularly reported that every year will be the year during which Linux finally breaks out of its box and gains a major foothold at the desktop level. It hasn't happened yet.

Nearly every year for the last decade I've heard some pundit or vendor proclaim from the rooftops: This is the year of the Linux desktop. Yet, year in and year out, the proclamations don't materialize.

If you were sat at your Linux computer one dark evening in late 1999, things would have been considerably different. But things have changed. Linux is now an operating system anyone can install and use, and it's growing stronger every year. Here's how it happened.

It's become a tradition (and a bit of a running joke) for bloggers and tech pundits to declare that this year (whatever year you're in) will be The Year of the Linux Desktop. So in following with that tradition, I'm here to declare that 2010 will be The Year of the Linux Desktop, but not in the sense that many other bloggers have stated.

It’s new year’s for most of the world. Not only is it a new year, it’s a new decade full of promises for the computing world and the world at large. I hope you’ve enjoyed our foray into Ubuntu and Linux for the past few years. Here’s to many more!

Until a few years ago, hardly a day went by without an article being featured on Linux Today about how “the year of Linux” had arrived. Every Linux user with a blog was willing to bet, year after year, that this was finally going to be “the year of Linux.” This was going to be the year when the public got wise, quit paying the Microsoft tax and moved over to the obviously superior Linux.

I have heard every year predictions of each year being the year of the Linux desktop. I've got some bad news for you. It's not coming soon. Not this decade, probably not the next. The good news? We don't need a year of the Linux desktop.

Every year since 2004 has been touted as the year of the Linux desktop. That year where Linux of some flavor makes huge inroads into the home and work desktop scene. Every year these predictions have fallen short. Now 2008 being the year of the Linux desktop stories are already making the rounds.