Central to the success of Linux on the desktop is the continued improvement of the GNOME and KDE environments.
The first alpha release of GNOME 2.0 (source code is freely downloadable from www.gnome.org) provides a look at what users of this open-source desktop environment can expect in GNOME 2.0, slated for release late next month.
Stalwarts will be happy to see support for anti-aliased fonts and improved graphics, as well as better support for themes and accessibility.
Particularly useful will be the redesigns that reduce the mire of menus and dialogs that must be traversed to configure system settings and the like.