I'm amazed by the amount of innovation going on in the Linux world. The Linux Mint team breathed new life into the once-flagging MATE project (a continuation of GNOME 2). MATE has since spread into many other distros. The Linux Mint team started the Cinnamon project to give GNOME 3 the look and feel of GNOME 2. Cinnamon has since spread to competing distros. Cinnarch uses Cinnamon as its default DE. Mageia (forked from Mandriva) is the second distro to eclipse Ubuntu on Distrowatch. Only Linux Mint ranks higher. Several Arch Linux derivatives have popped up lately. Just a year or so ago, I was wondering why there weren't Arch Linux derivatives. Perhaps one of these Arch derivatives can be the Ubuntu or Mint of Arch Linux. There is a new distro called ArchPup, which is Puppy Linux built from Arch Linux packages. This is a sign of success for both Puppy Linux and Arch Linux. All is not lost for Ubuntu, as people are still creating Ubuntu derivatives. However, the controversial Unity interface still isn't gaining traction among desktop users. Unlike MATE and Cinnamon, Unity hasn't been spreading to Ubuntu's competitors. -- Jason Hsu <jhsu802701 at jasonhsu.com>