The New York Times is featuring a story of Linux on the desktop – see picture below:

Now what makes this article interesting is that it says clearly and distinctly that the Ubuntu version of Linux that Dell is offering on its notebook s and desktops is just as easy to install and use as Windows XP or Apple Mac. The chief attraction of the Ubuntu desktop is that there are literally hundreds of good programs that can be easily found, downloaded and installed at no cost and much easier than Apple or Windows freeware.

And given the cost of Microsoft Office on both the Mac and Windows, there are hundreds of dollars to be saved as well as time and aggravation. It is articles like this that will resonate with students and youngsters who are familiar with downloading free music and now can easily extend that to the OS – at big buck savings and equivalent if not better and faster service – remember Vista is bloated, slow on start-up(latest Redmond promises, promises – “we will have this fixed real soon now, by March 2008, promise”), has more peripheral interfacing problems than Ubuntu….

But the kicker is that the VM-Virtual machine wares available for Ubuntu will kick in and with at least 3-4 approaches allow users to run the must have Apple or Windows programs. 2010 – Linux on 40% of all desktops is not out of reach.