[TriLUG] Best Linux Desktop and Desktop Apps?

[Tarus Balog]

Okay, this topic is a little long, so let me apologize in advance.

My 12" Powerbook turned 3 last month, and it's time to think about a  
new laptop. The Intel Powerbooks are too new for me (if I get one of  
those I'll probably wait until this summer or if possible after the  
Developer's Conference in August) although the one we have in the  
office is screaming fast.

While I love my Powerbook, I am getting a little nervous about the  
direction that Apple is taking with respect to DRM. I used to have an  
Alfa Romeo, and when a saw one in a movie I rented (they still sell  
them in Europe) I want to send the picture to a friend to figure out  
the model. So I placed the DVD in my Mac, paused on the frame with  
car, and tried to take a screenshot.

A dialog popped up saying that I couldn't do that.

What? I can understand taking steps to protect against ripping an  
entire DVD, but a picture from it? Get real. I brought up VLC and  
took the picture anyway, but it did tarnish the love affair I was  
having with my laptop (no comments from the peanut gallery, please).

Next, Mac hardware is just so darn expensive. Even the switch to  
Intel won't do much for that, and it looks like AMD is taking names  
in the speed department in any case. We bought an AMD64 powered  
Shuttle for demoes that is crazy fast.

Finally, the Linux desktop, quite frankly, has gotten much, much  
better in the last three years. I usually run Debian on my servers  
and have little interaction with a graphical desktop, but I find it  
easier to use CentOS on 64-bit machines, and when I am using KDE on  
those systems I have been pleasantly surprised at how nice it is.

So - before I buy my next Mac I was thinking about playing with using  
Linux as a desktop again.

On to the questions:

1) What should I look at in terms of a nice, clean, powerful desktop?  
I like KDE. Is there a distro out there that is stable enough to use  
in a mission critical application (i.e. my desktop) that is current  
enough to contain lots of cool, bright, shiny things? I think Debian  
is out since I don't want to run sid. CentOS? Ubuntu? I doubt anyone  
has duplicated the usefulness of Exposé, but one can hope.

2) Recommended apps? I believe I will have to have CodeWeavers just  
because my job requires access to Office and I'd like access to  
iTunes, but others:

Office: OpenOffice, KOffice?
iTunes: xmms?
Photoshop: Gimp
Mail: Thunderbird
Browser: Firefox
Widgets: ?
Calendar: ?
Address Book: ?
Adium: ?
iPhoto: Gallery?
iMovie: ?
iDVD: ?

3) Connectivity: How is the current support for wireless (I love the  
"Location" feature of OSX) and bluetooth? iSync?

I make my living with open source software and I truly believe in it.  
I think that the community has done a great job of porting standard  
Linux apps to OSX and creating new open source offerings for the  
platform. But there is something in the back of my mind that keeps  
nagging me that Apple may be turning evil, and now would be a good  
time to figure out if there are some alternatives. I may have grown  
too comfortable with my Mac "just working" but it is worth a shot.

Thanks for any suggestions.

-T

-----

Tarus Balog
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