World domination has been happening for some time, just slower than we might like.

> Is anyone of you able to refuel my faith in unavoidable Linux's world domination?

In 2004/5, I worked at a (UK) government science research lab. Their policy was that all user's desktops had to run Windows - all email must use Outlook, all web browsing must use IE. Nothing else was supported. That site would I'm sure, count as a "MS shop" to its own management and any outside observer. As my job was to look after a Linux compute server - the word "Linux" even appeared in my job title - I had a special dispensation to run Linux on my official work desktop - as long as it was in a virtual machine.

One of my first jobs was to get a Windows secure client working for access to this cluster as all access was to be crypto authenticated. I visited various researchers, to ascertain their requirements. Guess what? Every single one of these guys had on their desks a minimal "official" PC, supported by the IT department. Next to it was a huge PC with a big screen, bought with their own budget, running Linux. When I started talking about access to the cluster from Windows, these guys said "can't we just use ssh?" - and I replied that as far as I was concerned that was great, but the site had a policy of Windows, and so we needed a Windows client... and they looked at me with pity and explained that they actually did their *work* on Linux, and only used the little Windows box for email.

That was 5 years ago, and even then Linux did all they needed. Before long, these researchers will be become managers, and the old managers - the ones who were themselves rebels in the 80s when they installed Windows PCs and overthrew the old tyranny of centralised IBM/DEC systems - are retiring.

So don't worry: first, the published number of Linux desktops out there is almost certainly a vast underestimate. Second, the problem of mass acceptance is not technical, it's due to the fact that any big change requires a whole generation of middle management to turn over.