I still have Mepis on my machine as a second system. I actually used it to rescue my Windows system when the boot sector got corrupted. I like the overall smoothness of it, but my chief complaint with Linux in general is MIDI. I use my computer to make music, teach guitar lessons, etc. Linux and MIDI just doesn't work. I just don't get it. Windows works great with all sorts of music apps and so does a Mac. Why can't Linux get it together to support musicians? I mean, we're all a bunch of cheapskates because we'd rather spend our money on instruments, amps, and studio gear. We'd be a natural for a free OS.
Linux is waiting for a gaggle of code head musicians. When that occurs, you will (again) see a burst of products that will mimic what is out there in Windows, thne Apple. However, some of my clients are very successful (small scale) musicians, one of them being a niche band called Southern Culture on the Skids. Rick (the lead guitar player and leader of the band) says he only uses mac for production/mixing stuff (he has his own studio, of course and leases it out to other aspiring Chapel Hill bands). He says the Windows stuff sux. I don't know anything about it, and he is the kind of guy who swears he can hear a distinct difference between his 59 Telecaster and the 64 model (he must have 60 guitars). People like that are detail - a - holics, and he might use a program just because of some widget used when mixing one track with another. Like I said, I don't know beans about it, but I thought Mac sort of ruled in the music community. Trust me, though. If linux keeps building a base (and they are) some kid who is an aspiring musician and a cs major will decide "I don't like any of the synth/mix/whatever programs out there and I am going to just code one for linux," and we will be off to the races. The big thing I like about Linux is that. There is the kind of passion that used to surround apple scruffs years ago. People are innovative, creative, dedicated, helpful, and (largely) knowledgeable.
I think MS is going to be in full panic mode within the next 5 years, if not sooner. This will be good for MS, Linux, and the end users. Not that MS will "go away." Ain't gonna happen, and I don't want it to happen. But it will either become like Ford and GM, a dinosaur relic whose declining market share is steadily chipped away until, like GM, it is forced to completely reinvent itself or go under -- OR -- it will return to a company where the words "creativity" and "innovation" are more than just marketing buzzwords.