Some of the so called 'experts' predict in January of each year that this year is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop. I remember people declaring that 2003 was going to be the year of Linux on the desktop. They kept on revising their targets at the beginning of each year. It has now become so common to see such articles on tech websites that nobody really takes them seriously.
A positive development in the last few years is the rise of Ubuntu. Those who have not been bitten by the Ubuntu bug wonder what is so special about it. Those who use it swear by it. There is a lot of buzz around it all the time. All the code and binaries shipped by Ubuntu are readily available for any other Linux distro to see and copy (due to GPL). So what does Ubuntu do that others don't?
The simple answer is, things work on Ubuntu. Things work as they should. Things work as you expect them to. Here is a Linux distro that cares for the average joe. It doesn't expect you to understand tens of configuration file formats and edit them using 'your favorite text editor'. Ubuntu has been designed with desktop in mind, not just the back-end server. There are tons of software packages for Ubuntu. It has a wonderful package manager. Once you have all the correct repositories set up, you can install pretty much any software without bothering about dependencies, all from a nice GUI called Synaptic. I have been using Ubuntu on my desktop for weeks now, but I have not learnt any debian package management commands yet! Your best chance of getting your wireless, suspension (to disk, to memory), etc working on Linux is on Ubuntu. It is possible (almost) to live without opening the text mode terminal on Ubuntu. There is also a vibrant community around Ubuntu, so things will only get better in future.
If you are hesitant to make the jump, try out the Ubuntu live CD/DVD. I'm sure you will love it.
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