Linux hard factor on taking itself to the corporate desktop is lack of business productivity software, and cross-platform file compatibility. Right now the standard of corporate office suite is still Microsoft Office Suite, no doubt about it. StarOffice and AbiWord has a great achievement in this matters with the abilities to import and export files to Microsoft Office format, but there are still weak point on that function right now and a corporate company could not afford to lose their documents over this import/export features which indirectly causing the dropping of productivities inside the corporate itself.

While waiting for Linux native applications to be compatible with Win32 based office suite's files, some companies have take a road to develop emulators and virtual systems to run Microsoft famous office suites. CrossOver Office by Codeweavers is a great example of that innovation to bring Microsoft Windows users to migrate to Linux and still keep up with their productivity needs. CrossOffice capabilities to run Microsoft Office Suite by translating Windows API is a great alternative for a price lower than Windows OS (Win98,Win2K, XP).

LindowsOS is another Linux OS product that is supposed to provide Windows application compatibility. Although the company-Lindows.com-has gotten a fair amount of press related to Microsoft's objection to its name, it hasn't yet shows it's stability on running Office and other Windows programs on Linux Michael Robertson, the CEO of Lindows.com says that version 1.0 of LindowsOS will be available by summer 2002.

As the price of Desktop system drops, Windows Operating System will not be a reasonable OS to be purchased. Currently WindowsXP Pro full edition cost $299 while some clone build systems cost around $400-600 (Found a $399 price tag for Duron 800Mhz System with 256PC133 RAM and 10GB Hard drive) for mid-range desktop and i don't  think any company will spend almost $300 just for the OS itself while all they need is an office suite to type a documents and to create spreadsheets. Linux will be the best choice as substitute based on this factor.

Over the pass few years, Linux Graphics User Interface has dramatically improved, with the latest release of KDE 3.0 and soon GNOME 2.0, i don't think Linux is less attractive than Windows XP. Another factor that Linux is not hitting on desktop is Hardware compatibilities issues. Linux needs to get support from manufacturer to start providing Linux drivers on all their hardware.

I've been using Mandrake 8.2 to replace my Windows Desktop and i have to say, Linux is not far from being a great Operating System for Desktop, it just need some improvement on multi platform file support and hopefully an office suite that re fully compatible with Microsoft Office Suite.