Not that I don't hate windows. I do - with every fiber of my being.

But here's the truth in the industry. There have been exactly two developers of successful desktop environments. Apple and Microsoft. Sun couldn't build a usable UI to save their life (witness openlook, sun ray, java desktop, cose). IBM has virtually no experience on the desktop either (hard to say if OS/2 counts - are those people around anymore - are they working on this?).

If you want an opensource unix compatible desktop os with decent applications right now, then get thee down to your local Apple store and plunk down the cash for one today.

Or fart around in DIY hell forever. See if I care.

Forgive me if I'm sceptical of IBM *leading* on anything, but they've shown zero vision in end user products since the release of xedit.

Servers? Sure. Desktops? Not even remotely expecting anything useful. These are the idiots who recast their smalltalk as java rather than try to appear to be out of line.

It'll never ship and if it does it'll be warmed over KDE.