Is 2007 going to be nice to Linux?

Linux on the desktop has come a long way and for a significant number of desktop uses (e.g. secretarial work, enterprise desktop, among others) it is a cheap, viable, high quality and usable platform.
For many years there was a considerable difference in the multimedia, graphics and user-friendly feature support between Windows/OS X and linux. Things have been gradually changing, although it is unclear whether the change is happening fast enough to matter at this time. Mark Shuttleworth’s announcement that Ubuntu‘s next version (codenamed ‘Feisty Fawn’), expected in April 2007, will include considerable improvements on multimedia support, desktop graphics (viz. Xgl/AIGLX, Compiz etc.) and that the Ubuntu developer summit planned for early November will be held at 1600, Amphitheatre Parkway. Yes, that’s what you think, allmighty Google. I wonder if that means something more than the fact that Google is a welcoming corporation to Open Source developers… 😉