Users care about having access to the software tools they need, the ability to quickly launch and switch between them, and occasionally access files directly. Otherwise, they don’t care about the OS anymore than a driver cares about what allow his engine block is made of.
Only about half of Microsoft’s OS offerings have historically met the above criteria. Yet because of the hegemony with PC makers, we’ve put up with them anyway.
It’s not such an impossible target to hit from a technical point of view. Breaking the hegemony will prove much more difficult - we’ve already seen the “Pawn Stars” anti-Chromebook TV ad where the punchline is “Without Windows and Office it’s not a real laptop”. Perception becomes reality...
Every single time I attempt to help a friend or family member with their computer troubles, I start with the exact same joke.
As soon as it starts up and I see “Windows” or “Microsoft,” I say, I see the problem already!
I have Windows on my work computer because it is their computer. At home, I have ONE Windows Vista computer because it came with it and my wife is computer illiterate.
I have two laptops and two servers all running Linux and they are older than dirt and still faster than my wife’s Vista!