Yes, it’s the best: you’ve got all the software you need through the official repositories and, since you don’t have to sign up for an account or give credit card information, you get to keep your privacy.
Depending on which distribution you use, there are often plenty of community repositories to supplement what doesn’t make it in the official ones. In OpenSUSE, you can go to software.opensuse.org and it’ll search through the offical repos and all the community repositories in the Open Build Service.
Matt is right that we have to teach and empower users. There are two schools of thought on how to reach the general public: dumb everything down for them or bring them up to our level.
If you try to dumb down Linux, you could lose your base in the process, just as the GOP has lost conservatives by dumbing down its values. I think it’s better to find users who are eager to improve themselves and reach out to them.
Will you reach fewer everyday users this way? Yes, but essentially nobody has the resources to compete with Google, Apple, and Microsoft in the dumbing down, heavily advertised department.
Linux is very user-friendly. It is not, however, stupid-friendly.