I can only imagine how good Linux on desktop could be if the community could consolidate development to maybe a dozen or less distributions. Instead of hundreds of fragmented bunch of people all doing their own thing. At least Ubuntu has some semblance of continuity but it still comes down to what works on Linux and so far the lack of applications people actually use supporting Linux is a big problem. Sure, the hardware compatibility has been better than in the past. But having a stable Linux desktop OS is only half the battle. I have yet to be that impressed with applications available that are workable solutions to the rest of people on Windows or Mac's.
