I feel a change in the coming year for the computer world. Everyone has known and felt the presence of linux creeping in on Windows market share in the last few years. Everyone who is pro open source has predicted every year the coming of linux on the desktop. I was never a believer of that statement, that is… until now.
My holdups
My hold ups were mainly the ease of installation, difficulty with installing new software and it’s dependancy hell, and the old X server display system. Also the availability of quality software was always a problem. Read user friendly, non-geek software for everyday common tasks.

I think my holdups have or will be solved in the coming year. The old X server is being revamped with hardware gpu acceleration through luminousity. Software is becoming much better mainly because of larger organization’s such as Novell contributions. Applications such as Fspot. Installing software is being made painless and as easy as windows with autopackage.
It’s these kinds of enhancements to functionality that will help linux creep into the homes of the everyday user. The only thing lacking is major third party support from people like Adobe and Microsoft Office Products. Adobe is already committed to bringing Acrobat Reader to Linux I would assume Acrobat Pro would not be far behind.
With Many applications and Companies looking toward SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and web apps I think platform independence is becoming more viable everyday. I also see many people making RIA’s (Rich Internet Applications) from various technologies that rival traditional client side programs thus negating the need for certain restrictive operating environments. These types of applications and services will help provide the pathway for Linux to move into a mainstream desktop solution.