Most likely, if you were to ask a mixed-mash group of geeks the question, “Which Operating System has the best desktop?”, the most likely answers you’d hear would be Windows 7 or Mac OSX. And, you might be forgiven for taking that wisdom as a done deal, and not looking any further, but you’d be missing some excellent work in the Linux space, from two ostensibly competing camps. KDE and Gnome are the two big players on the Linux desktop, and the folks behind these two desktops, have certainly not been watching Windows and Mac whizz by. They’ve been out there, thinking long and deep about how we actually use the desktop, and how best to mould the GUI to OUR hard-wired needs and wants, all in the name of? Usability.

We’re looking at Gnome 3, in this post. Slated for release in September this year, it represents around two years of the best work from a number of the Linux developers who, back in 2008 decided that the panels and menus just didn’t adequately describe the way humans interact with the desktop. Using Gnome 3, they hope you will think more in terms of how you start an activity, and how you switch between activities. For instance: What you see in the upper right corner is the Activities hot spot and when you activate this window, the “desktop” moves aside, giving way to the Activities Window, which has sections for finding stuff, applications, favourites, places and devices and items you’ve used recently.

The concept of workspaces gets a similar rethink and workover. The assumption of a fixed predetermined number of workspaces with cumbersome methods of creation and destruction, are gone. Need a workspace? Add one. From the activities area. Click. Then drag a Word-processing app icon into the workspace to open the app in the space. Slick and easy.

Watch out, Microsoft. Watch out, Apple. Linux may yet eat your lunch. While you’re looking.