Developers of the Fedora Project have put together a fine distribution that's rock-solid and user-friendly. ts purpose in life is to be the Linux desktop, with the flexibility to function as a solid work or development platform. Can it sit on a netbook and do cloud? Sure, but that's not its main goal.

Linux users are as evangelical about desktop environments, the all-encompassing graphical user interface software responsible for providing everything from taskbars to office suites, as they are about operating systems. It shouldn't come as any surprise, then, that the first major release in over five years of the most popular desktop environment available is causing quite a stir.

Desktop Linux has floundered for three main reasons: too few applications, limited desktop hardware compatibility, and too few tools (not to mention skilled people) to manage a boatload of Linux desktop systems.

When people are talking about "The year of Linux Desktop", it seems that there is a large crowd with no knowledge of Linux. People who use computers for a long time also replied the same thing when I talked about Linux with them. This screenshot shows the reply from an user when someone posted a reply in a form with a reference to 'Linux'

Linux and UNIX-like operating systems in general are regarded as being more secure for the common user, in contrast with operating systems that have "Windows" as part of their name. Why is that?

People don't just like Windows 7, it's the anti-Vista: loved for as many often spurious reasons as Vista was hated. But has Window 7 seen off any threat from open source operating systems? In other words, has Windows 7 killed Linux on the desktop?

Desktop Linux has floundered for three main reasons: too few applications, limited desktop hardware compatibility, and too few tools (not to mention skilled people) to manage a boatload of Linux desktop systems.

Among the three major operating systems, you may know that Linux has the lowest market share on the desktop but is leading the server market. However, Linux on the desktop is slowly but surely going mainstream that's enough to scare the crap out of Microsoft.

Linux isn't very popular on the desktop. It's a far third behind OS X, which is a very far second behind Windows. Most people cite pre-installed operating systems as the reason. But as a student of psychology, I see something most people don't. There's one big factor in why Linux isn't popular on the desktop. Linux is free. I know this sounds like complete dog's bollocks, but hear me out before judging my sanity.