The Linux Desktop is already here and thriving

A debate is smoldering yet again in the Linux community as prominent figures debate whether it's time to give up hope on the "year of the Linux desktop" ever coming or whether the advent of Android is actually its fulfillment. Problem is, it came and it's been here a while, but we haven't even noticed.

I realize that statement flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Last year, Miguel de Icaza's controversial post "What killed the Linux desktop" famously claimed that the opportunity for a Linux-based desktop to dominate the market has passed and is now an unachievable dream.

...Linus Torvalds has a different avenue for hope: Google's Chromebook. This actually is a Linux desktop computer with only one application, the Chrome browser. The hardware itself is perfectly capable of running other Linux distributions -- which is what Torvalds does -- but out of the box, it's running a stripped-down, single-function Linux system that's easily maintained and secured centrally.

Linux has already won on the desktop.