Who says Linux isn't ready for the desktop? Linux is not only ready for the desktop, it allows you to work on multiple desktops that you can switch between with a mouse click (or keypress).

I use four that I call Main, Net, Dev and Monitor. Scroll down to see what was going on one evening when the whim struck to grab some screenshots ...

On my "Main" desktop I was checking email, had a console window open (left under download progress dialogue) and was listening to steaming audio off the internet (top right) while...

On my "Dev" desktop Emacs and gFTP work side by side on the websites seen...

on my "Net" desktop where four browser tabs across two browser windows display the current and under development versions of the website on two different servers and in two directories on my computer.

What is not seen in these images are the Apache web server software serving up the local versions of the website, Ksnapshot capturing the screen images and Gaim instant messenger running two protocols (MSN and Jabber) simultaneously in case my daughter deigns to say hello.

All this on an old Celeron 533Mhz computer with 192Mb of RAM and two 15" monitors, the second of which runs on a video card picked up used for $10.

With Linux you don't have to spend a lot to do a lot with your computer.  :-)

(Why run Apache on my PC you might ask? Well, just using "File > Open" doesn't work with the dynamic content in some websites. The site in these examples needs Apache's PHP engine. Fortunately a Linux computer can be at once server and workstation!)