What's out there right now when it comes to Desktop Interfaces which are available right now and how do they relate to the Touch interface Tablets moving forward?

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Cinnamon, the fork for Gnome Shell by Clem Lefebvre of Mint fame has a new release.

Ces 2012 is all but over and there have been a few products which stood out, especially Lenovo getting fingers into everything from phones to TVs.

While many of the innovations were not direct Linux products as they were being showcased on Windows I think this sort of show does point a path where the innovation in Linux has to happen if it is going to stay relevant. The Ubuntu TV is a fine example and it would be great in the next few years to see more of this.. Touch screen interfaces, portability, battery saving, mobility....

Here are some of the products I thought stood out.

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I've been working on a complex document for the last year or so. This document is now 25 pages long, and includes a dozen images in frames with captions, with text running around the images, a table of contents, Gradient backgrounds on major headings, 2 drawings, varying headers and footers (with borders and shadows), lists, varying page styles, footnotes, and font styles.

I've been working on this document long enough that I started it with openoffice. I then switched to LibreOffice with its first release. And now I'm editing it with the LibreOffice Christmas Eve (2011-12-24) 3.5.0beta2 release.

Invariably, up to now, in a 2 hour work session, openoffice/libreoffice would crash at least once. Sometimes more.

Interestingly enough, this latest LibreOffice beta has not crashed once in three 1 hour work sessions. It may only be a beta, but I'm a believer.

Gook work LibreOffice folk.

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While the concept of the Thin client has caught on in the world of the office it's not really set the consumer world alight. In many offices in an attempt to keep the costs of ne hardware down companies such as VMware and Citrix have been running rampant over the last few years going full circle on the 1970's mainframe ideas except this time feeding Windows Desktops straight out of the comms room onto users desktops.

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Corel have recently announced Aftershock Pro a $100 package aimed directly at Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture as a photo workflow and management tool. and there is a Linux Option..

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With all the fuss it seems Ultra Thin PC's are here to stay. I'll put my hands up and own a MacBook Pro however i do this because of Lightroom. I've been looking at the Spec's for these Ultrabooks and the possibility of Corel Aftershot pro on Ubuntu and wonder which Linux Distro will get the best performance out of an ultrabook or will be have to wait 12 months for the community to catch up again..

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Yes, thats right.. An Encrypted, USB, Portable device in 10 minutes, which works.. Can be locked down, boots into Gnome2 if Unity fails, boots on an HP, Compaq, Dell and Apple because i've tested these, prints, webcams work, usb headsets work, Citrix client works, PPTP, OpenVPN, IPSec and runs ANY software from the Ubuntu repository..

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With the level of always on information we have available to us at the touch of a button there is a huge debate as to a simple question.

Are we smarter of are we dumber?

With access to all this information on a multitude of subjects, with opinions and related texts. With social media available to discuss and evaluate opinion with others of like mind the internet offers a wealth of information and follow up material for us.

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Twenty years ago this year the first smartphone, the Simon was invented its been a long and rocky road since then..

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I declare 2012 the Year of the Linux Desktop! At least on my computer.

Happy Birthday Susan aka srlinuxx!!! I can't believe you are 39 yet again! Hope you have a great day and a prosperous New Year.

Boxee was an early full screen playback system which suited Ubuntu well, and the community in the most part followed it creating their own set top boxes and starting the cut the cord revolution.

Well Boxee knows how to say thank you for that early desktop commitment...

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Everyone knows about video games and the issues facing them in Linux. Not as many people are aware though that tabletop role Playing Games are experiencing a bit of a surge in popularity and that Linux and other open source software are able to assist in that growth.

With Google Chrome becoming the number 2 Web browser in 2011 it's a sure thing that Google are doing something right. Building on the same success as Firefox and learning from Mozilla Chrome's Plugin and Extensions library is growing daily. Having a Google login linked in with your browser ensures that your plugins will load on any browser you are logged into.

This is a list of extensions i'm using regularly, i do use others, however these are the one's i go back to.

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f there is something about prediction posts its a pretty sure thing when you read them back a year later, it's pretty evident that most of us don't have the powers of Nostradamus.

What's going to be hot in 2012?

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2011 was a very interesting year for Linux, the Jewel in the crown Ubuntu got some very bad press mostly over Unity. KDE started to get its act together and took great strides to provide a usable GUI and the Gnome Team took minimalisation to a whole new level for GUI's with Gnome 3.

So what does 2012 have to offer for the Linux Community?

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As the Web grows and provides us with more and more services it's often too easy to lose a few services here and there. While Facebook and Google are huge names and indeed are also willing to kill off services which don't work (especially Google this year) there are other URL's which provide niche services.

This list is of 10 such services which enhance the usage of the internet and you may not have heard of them.

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While Amazon do whatever they need to do with UK Publishing companies before they release the Kindle fire over here in Blighty, there is of course the normal Kindle touch, however having had a play with it I wasn't that impresses with the Interface or the lack of cheap books. I decided to have a scout round for alternative eInk/eBook readers.

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