GNU/Linux on the desktop

When I spoke to Red Hat CEO Matt Szulik less than a year ago about GNU/Linux on the desktop, he told me that people buy applications, not operating systems, and that they were competing against other UNIX vendors for the server. When I asked Irving Wladawsky-Berger who helped bring GNU/Linux to IBM the same thing he said "if it doesn't run MS Word, nobody's interested." Months later, both Red Hat and Sun are pitching corporate desktop Linux.

Last I checked, GNU/Linux still can't run Word, or Excel, or connect with MSFT Exchange Server for email (although Ximian is working on that). As expensive as MSFT software is under License 6.0, I still struggle to see many corporate desktops switching over.