"I have used Open Desktop, Looking Glass and OpenView. And now am a KDEfan. But none of them has ever made it as a big-time desktop operating environment and none of them ever will. It’s not that Unix/Linux is hard to use. The biggest problem is a perceived lack of end-user apps. In particular, Linux on the desktop needs Microsoft Office before it can become mainstream," says Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols.

Last year, according to IDC, Linux captured only about 1.5 percent of the desktop PC market (which remains dominated by Windows). And Eazel, the most promising company trying to bring Linux to the masses, went out of business after failing to attract investors. But Linux desktop development is far from dead. Even if it's not ready for consumers, there is considerable demand from businesses that desire Linux's low cost, flexibility and control. In other words, there's no need to fear that ``Tux,'' Linux's penguin mascot,will become an endangered species.

"I'd advise paying Rebel a few hundred bucks more and get a system set up and ready to install. On the other hand, if you do that, you won't have heavy pressure to learn Linux fast because the NetWinder will be doing the crucial jobs while you get around to it," continues Jerry Pournelle.

Your Network's Secret Life, a series by Marcel Gagné, offers an overview of network management and visualization tools. Here he says, "One of the single most effective (and overlooked) network discovery tools is netstat. It comes bundled with every Linux distribution, and it can tell you a great deal about what is happening on your server. For instance, by using the program with the -a and -p flags, you can find every connection (or port) open on your system and what programs are using those ports."

"2001 is not going to be the year of the Penguin for home or business users that have yet to adopt Linux. Although Linux has grown by leaps and bounds during the last few years, it is still plagued with a lot of issues that will keep it away from being a 100 percent viable alternative to Windows for a long time. At the top of the list comes the simple fact that Linux, by design, is not a common person's operating system. Linux, like Unix, was designed with networking in mind and network security. Still, I hold out hope for Linux.

The real cost gap is in software--but, consumers don't really perceive this (yet). They don't realize that they've paid for the Windows operating system that's shipped with their computers. They do realize they haven't paid for the version of Office they're using-and that's because they know perfectly well that it's pirated. So Linux doesn't have much pull as yet. And it's not because the desktop environment is incomplete, or that there aren't enough applications, etc. It's because people haven't yet perceived that Linux is cheaper. But the pull picture is about to change.

There are many questions about Linux that go unanswered because it would just take too long to do the research. Dennis E. Powell has done the research necessary to answer one of them.

"Much of the news that's crossed my desk this week raises the question: Are expensive computers dead? Some of it raises another question: Will low prices leave enough vendors standing to give us sufficient choice? And a whole high-tech industry (well, would-be industry) that's built on low-priced or free product--desktop Linux--is floundering. Where does this leave us? Right now, I think anyone seeking a general-purpose office desktop should budget around $800 (plus display); a high-performance PC, $1,500 (ditto)."

"I'm not as sanguine about Linux's prospects for mainstream business, except in specific cases.

In the market where the technology can be substituted with little pain, Linux will find acceptance and carve out a strong niche. But the higher and broad-based markets (such as data centers and desktops) will remain beyond Linux's grasp," opines Michael Gartenberg.

Graeme Philipson points to an Australian survey by the market-research firm Strategic Research and

concludes that it's just a matter of time before Windows is truly everywhere -- with Linux not making a dent in the enterprise. He says, "You would think it was the Next Big Thing, and indeed it is attracting some support for marginal applications. But fewer than 1 percent of data centres intend to use it for serious applications."