As I'm reading through the comments I see only two types of users:
- the hackernews audience
- 60+ low level users (no offence)
The former group has enough experience and knowlegde to get the system (linux) adapted to their needs.
The latter are only using it for either browsing, checking email or watching movies.
I think we're forgetting the important 'middle' group: the ones that aren't in IT but are working with a PC daily for their work. Linux is getting no real traction there (yet!) because of the poor native support of tools that are pretty common the in corporate world.
There won't ever be support in Linux for the 'custom software' part you mention. There are companies which won't upgrade from XP, because their custom software would break without IE 6.0 - can they ever want to migrate to another OS?
The only reason Linux is not more mainstream than Windows is because its not pre-installed on your computer when you buy. Even installing popular linux distros like Ubuntu from scratch on a new system is much easier than installing a Windows OS on a new system. I recently had this experience and I was stunned to see that for Windows I had to search and download vendor specific drivers for windows to even work with my monitor properly. I did the same with Ubuntu and no special driver needed to be installed. But only after completing the installation and seeing that everything works as it should, I had the option to install proprietary drivers (I don't have any philosophical problem with them) but I chose not to because it was working just fine.
I don't know if this is common maybe someone with more experience can vouch for it?
Just because the examples look similar doesn't mean they are the same thing. For one, Android had a huge headstart before WP, the phone market itself is quite different from Desktop OS market, specifically compare to the time Windows cemented its dominance.
Other counter example includes iOS taking over BB and Nokia from behind, Android surpassing iOS (in terms of usage) coming from behind.
Mobile market and desktop market is not the same thing, so its a silly point to bring up.
- the hackernews audience - 60+ low level users (no offence)
The former group has enough experience and knowlegde to get the system (linux) adapted to their needs.
The latter are only using it for either browsing, checking email or watching movies.
I think we're forgetting the important 'middle' group: the ones that aren't in IT but are working with a PC daily for their work. Linux is getting no real traction there (yet!) because of the poor native support of tools that are pretty common the in corporate world.
Think: - vpn software - voip tools - login procedures - custom software - etc etc
I'm not seeing this fixed in the near future...