From the 'More Beautiful than Apple' files:

Back in 2008, I was at OSCON when Mark Shuttleworth set out the audacious goal to make the Linux desktop more beautiful than Apple.

Today, four years later, Shuttleworth returned to the OSCON stage to claim victory.

In his view Ubuntu's desktop is now better than Apple. In his view it's also easy for existing Apple users to move to Ubuntu as well.

That said he noted that Ubuntu's Unity desktop effort was a deeply unpopular process, but it is one that has delivered results.

Shuttleworth demonstrated easy applications transitions and he showed off the upcoming HUD (Heads Up Display) coming in the Ubuntu 12.10 release later this year.

The success is also translating into a bold new claim from Shuttleworth:

"Next year, 5 percent of the world's PCs will ship with Ubuntu pre-installed," Shuttleworth said.

That's a number based on emerging markets, like India and China as well as brand news PCs from Dell.

Shuttleworth has always been a big talker, with big ideas and to be fair, Ubuntu has progressed over the last four years. Unity (love it or hate it) is a very different desktop than we had four years ago. Ubuntu TV and Ubuntu for Android will bring Ubuntu (and Linux) to more form factors then ever before too.



With Windows 8 coming, users are likely to be looking for alternatives (potentially) so this could well be....(wait for it...) the Year of the Linux Desktop?



Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.