January was a busy start to the new year in the Linux community. Filled with the first conferences of 2006 – such as the widely acclaimed LinuxConf AU (more on that later) – it was also a time to begin planning many of the other events coming up later this year. 2006 promises to bring many interesting technological developments, but also, hopefully, this year will prove to be yet another important year for Linux advocacy and a time to “make the switch” for many more people around the world. My sister is one person who made the switch to Linux a year or so ago. Having come from a mostly Windows background, she found using Ubuntu surprisingly straightforward. Of course, she just happens to have my brother-in-law (a python developer working on Linux) to help out when things break. Still, I’m encouraged by how far we’ve already come with a great set of alternatives for those just starting out – especially the much improved Open Office 2.0 and an ever improving general desktop experience. I’m not going to say this year will be a breakthrough for Linux on the desktop (it’s probably not quite at that point yet), but we’re getting close.