In the decade since it was first proclaimed as the “Windows killer,” Linux on the desktop has made virtually no progress in real adoption numbers. According to market share trackers (based on real PC activity and not just sales) such Net Applications, StatCounter, W3Counter, and others, the market share of Linux has been hovering around just 1-2% of total PC operating system installations for a decade.

In his article, Jason also gives reasons why he believes Linux has not been the “Windows killer” that a lot of people have been predicting.

Despite this consistent evidence that Linux desktops were going nowhere, pundits, analysts and Linux enthusiasts have been repeatedly predicting that Linux was on the verge of a breakthrough on the desktop. At the end of nearly every year, some writer or publication has prognosticated that the following year would be “The year of the Linux desktop.”

While Linux has made progress in the servers and mobile devices arena, it has failed to conquer the desktop world. You can read Jason’s complete analysis on TechRepublic’s Web site here.

1. Copy the following code in Notepad.

[Shell]

Command=2

IconFile=explorer.exe,3

[Taskbar]

Command=ToggleDesktop

2. Save the file as Show Desktop.scf in the folder C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch, where Username is the account name that you are logged in as. For example, if you are logged in as Matt, the path to the folder will be “C:\Documents and Settings\Matt\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch.” You should now see the Show Desktop icon in the Quick Launch bar.

Make sure that when you save the file in Notepad you change the Save as Type to “All files”, otherwise it will add the .txt extension to the file.

Do not be fooled by the graphic. The traffic in Seattle area is not this good. I took the screen shot on a Sunday afternoon.

By the way, if you have gone through the trouble to make Google your default search engine in Internet Explorer, when prompted, DO NOT make Live Search your default search engine.

In order for you to take advantage of Aero user interface, your computer hardware must support this feature. Most nVidia and ATi cards support Aero. To enable or disable the Aero feature, use the following procedure.