From my perspective as a normal user the trade-off isn't worth it. The pain of using Linux is very real, and the benefits you describe are nebulous and uncertai

From my perspective as a normal user the trade-off isn't worth it. The pain of using Linux is very real, and the benefits you describe are nebulous and uncertain, considering the amount of time people spend on their computers. I tried really hard to make it work. If it only took 10 minutes of troubleshooting, then it would have been fine, but it was instead hours of crawling through forums. Ultimately, this is a theory of mind issue, since proficient users and developers can't quite seem to grasp how regular joes use the software. Or if they do grasp it, they react with contempt instead of trying to fix the issue. Without making it REALLY convenient there is simply no way it will gain more than a small market share. Whether the contempt is justified is irrelevant if the goal is to have the Year of the Linux Desktop.