I must admit it's been 1-2 years. Maybe things have changed beyond recognition in that time, I doubt it though, since Linux is still in the realm of the nerds and pretty much no one else. They thought they were on to something with the popularity of cheap netbooks....but wait, fail. Windows trounced it because people got their cheap Linux netbooks home and didn't know how the hell to use them.
Things have moved on a fair bit in the last 1-2 years, I'd say. Ubuntu have been putting some serious effort into tidying things up and it shows. I'll admit I've been using Linux for about 13 years or so and I won't deny being firmly entrenched in the "nerd" camp. But installing the latest Ubuntu on my old laptop (Dell X1, they could probably start selling it again as a 12" netbook..), everything just worked out of the box (including wireless, function keys on the keyboard to adjust screen brightness and volume which flash up a cute transparent overlay etc.) It even supports two finger scrolling which the same machine doesn't under Windows. I'd describe it as easier than installing Windows on the same machine (I've only installed XP on it though, which obviously has the disadvantage when it comes to driver support because it's so old, the machine is from 2005).
There is surely a perception problem in that people in general are used to Windows, think all computers should run Windows and are not prepared to put in the effort to learn anything even slightly different. Windows also has a considerable marketing budget and media presence which is used to make sure people to keep thinking this way. I won't pretend that this isn't a serious "problem" for mass Linux adoption (it's a problem if you think that mass Linux adoption is important for some reason), but this is not the same as being "a long long way from being remotely useful for the vast majority of computer users", and this should be a well understood fact on a Mac oriented forum. I'd characterize the vast majority of computer users these days as being happy with a working web browser, music/movie player, email client and office suite, and (assuming a portable) decent wireless and suspend/resume/hibernation support - these are boxes which all of Windows, OS X and Linux tick which makes them all useful.
And sure, if you want to run "serious" games then doing it on Linux is an uphill struggle (I've never particularly bothered myself so maybe it's not as hard as I imagine). The same is largely true for OS X, except there are a select few games with Mac versions available. But again the "vast majority" are going to be happy with browser flash games and simple games like Solitaire which Linux has in abundance.
And yes, Windows 7 does seem pretty nice on my gaming desktop (it is used for games and things that simply need more horsepower than my Mac Mini can muster), and it does have some very cute touches (the pop-up thumbnails from the taskbar and auto-sizing to half the screen spring immediately to mind here), but overall I don't find it as nice to use as OS X or Ubuntu (and personally I think the control panel is a twisted confusing nightmare compared to the equivalents in the other OSes).
Put it this way, the last notebook I purchased in early 2008 was a Mac because I couldn't face having to deal with Vista, the hassle of trying to dig up XP drivers for everything (not to mention the indignity of having to pay extra for "Ultimate" Vista just to get the XP license) or the faff of getting and keeping basic things working in Linux. For my next one (probably a 32nm Nehalem thing when they become available) the non-Macs are back on the table because I think Ubuntu is up to the job (and Windows 7 is a better fall-back option than Vista).
Apologies for rant and thread hijack..
