Have a search in the forums for threads along the same lines of this one.

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...+virtual+image

The above link is probably the most helpful as regards information as to why it's missing now, but it dates from waaaay back in June.

Having read through the thread, it seems that the images are taken down to fix bugs, then uploaded again. But while that's not an exact indication as to why the Desktop image isn't there now, it's at least a clue.

I've been shouting horrible curse-words at my screen for days because I thought all the guides were outrightly lying about the existence of a Desktop virtual image pre-configured to work "out of the box"...

Hope this allays others' fears as it did mine...