Big Blue is offering a Virtual Desktop product that uses Canonical's Ubuntu Linux, Virtual Bridges' desktop virtualization software, and IBM's Open Collaboration Client Solution (Lotus Symphony + Lotus Notes). It's dubbed the "Microsoft-free" desktop. According to Jeff Smith, an IBM VP:

People are finally getting comfortable with what virtualization can do for them on the desktop. It's been on the server but now people want to know why they can't virtualize client workloads

But it's more than virtualizing the workload that is so appealing to me, it's the ability to restore entire desktops in minutes if they were to become infected. Just last night I received a phone call from my sister-in-law whose malware-infected laptop gave up any pretense of functionality. After a series of long distance diagnostics and quick assessment of the options the conclusion was clear: she was hosed. The best bet was to wipe the drive and restore. I wish I had a known good image of her laptop, she'd be back online now.

Netbooks like Asus Eee that can restore operating systems from flash memory make it easy to start clean. Virtual desktops can give us all that advantage.