This is a guide on how Linux and especially the KDE desktop could revolutionize the world of computers and operating systems and bring a major breakthrough so Linux would go mainstream. It is made for the KDE desktop but the ideas could also find their way into GNOME and other environments.

"It used to be a kiss of death to present yourself as a genuine alternative to Windows," said Canonical Founder Mark Shuttleworth on opening new users' eyes to desktop Linux distros. "But the success of the Web and the success of Apple have really made the PC companies think that it is possible to offer something that is perceived to be valuable even if it is not Windows."

For many years now, Linux has been a remarkable success story at the server level. However, at the desktop level, the tale is patchy - there are some success stories but for the most part one factor or another holds back the operating system from repeating its feats.

I've been sitting on this post, because I was hoping to put a more positive spin on the fact that even companies that adopt Linux for desktop computer users rarely if ever provide it to more than 20 percent of their users. In other words, even companies who say they “Love Linux” only put it on one of five desktops.

Ubuntu's focus on improving the desktop experience for users is starting to take hold. Clearly nothing happens overnight. More than two years ago, Ubuntu chief Mark Shuttleworth went out on a limb and said that his ambition was to make the Ubuntu desktop better than Apple's famously good-looking desktop.

Most of you, Linux users have always been limited to the two big desktop names in Linux. GNOME and KDE today represent the Linux desktop. But one desktop was made with small screen and children in mind. Yes, the Sugar.

One of the things I love about Linux is the ambitious and creative people behind it. Anyone with a text editor and a compiler is free to make up whatever strange software experiment they want, without needing to get approval from a huge corporation. With all of these amazing ideas flying around, it made me think, “what would the Linux desktop look like in ten or twenty years?”

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.

What strategy is needed to really spread desktop Linux to average home users? Here are some ideas that just might work.