The year of the Linux desktop never happened because by the time Linux became user friendly enough to install on desktops, the market for desktops had been eclipsed by laptops (and their proprietary chipsets, especially for wifi). By the time Linux caught up on laptops, people had moved on to tablets and phones.<p>The year of the Linux desktop, arguably, was 2011, when Android 4.0 was released, and brought Android up to the performance standards of iOS.