Usman Latif writes: "Linux has made few inroads on the desktop. Linux enthusiasts have plenty of excuses but do not seem to understand where they need to focus in order to make Linux a success on the desktop. My article 'The Future of Linux on the Desktop' is an attempt to point out markets where Linux can really make a difference."

Syllable 0.5.2 has been released and is now available for download. Some of the changes include new graphics card drivers for the nVidia GeForceFX and the Savage IX/MX chipsets. The media framework has also been updated, so now Syllable works with multiple soundcards. A full list of changes can be found on the Syllable website.

Linus Torvalds announced the release of 2.6.1-rc1, the first prepatch for the 2.6 series. He announced that 2.6.1-rc1 includes many patches that have been in the -mm patchset for a long time.

There are several tasks to which we must attend before actually making use of our freshly installed FreeBSD system. Immediately upon reboot, you will find yourself in the console. While it is possible to setup and use the graphical login managers -- kdm, gdm or others -- it is important to note that this uses extra resources. One of our assumptions is that you might not have all that excess horsepower, so we'll stick with the console login for now. Read more at OfB.biz.

Preview sports new file system, gee-whiz graphics, and some security fixes. The next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, is still in the early stages of its journey to the retail corral, but PCWorld's hands-on look at a preview reveals features we'd love to have now--while raising some intriguing questions.

In the course of putting the January 2004 issue together, the LinuxWorld editors circulated forward-looking questions to a wide selection members of the Linux community whose opinions we respect. Here's what they had to say. Elsewhere, "Linux will continue to make headway in 2004, but the path to success is rarely a straight line. The number of installed instances of Linux will continue to shoot straight up, but revenues for service providers will not" says David Johnson.

MandrakeSoft released a test version of its Cooker tree in the form of 2 ISOs available now for testing. Includes XFree86 4.4.0-RC2, KDE 3.1.94, kernel 2.6.0.

The DR-DOS/OpenDOS Enhancement Project has finished work on version 7.01.06 of the patches to the original Caldera OpenDOS/DR-DOS 7.01 source code, adding support for the FAT32 file system.

Ben Mazer write a not-so-positive review of the KDE 3.2 beta. It can be found here. Our recent KDE review is here. Elsewhere, RangerRick now has a preliminary KOffice port (with some Qt font/drawing issues still to fix) to Mac OS X in addition to the recent Konqueror port.

eWEEK.com's Linux & Open-Source Center Editor Steven Vaughan-Nichols loves the Linux desktop... for himself and other Linux mavens, but thinks that it's still a ways off from being the right choice for most companies. Our Take: There isn't a specific date where you can decide that a desktop experience is good for everybody everywhere (it is already good enough for many people), however I get the feeling that especially around middle 2005 we will be witnessing some truly satisfying results from Gnome 3, KDE 4, OpenCarpet, a matured 2.6 kernel and the evolved distros of the time, so hang on.

Here is a short list of the things I totally loved this year. Use the comment section to tell us about your favorites too!

Security Pipeline obtained access to the first widespread beta of Microsoft's forthcoming Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) during the holidays. Microsoft has said that this beta represents a subset of what will be released when this software is finalized sometime during the first half of 2004. CRN tested the new software on a couple of test machines, and found it to be very reliable during a couple of days use.

As a dedicated reader of OSNews.com and a VP of Technology for an IT firm that specializes in utilizing Open Source solution for small business, I have been amazed at the rash of some reviews on the various distros of Linux and their failure to really help readers make a choice on what they should use or try. Linux has really matured in the desktop arena and in alot less time than Windows took to do so.

The XFree86 core team has announced that it is disbanding. What does this mean for the pending XFree86 4.4.0 release which was going to be out in January? (currently the latest version is 4.4-RC2). We hope that someone puts a release together to give something new to users before freedesktop.org's XWin server comes out at the end of 2004 or early 2005.