Linux provides certain hurdles to using your computer vs. Windows. It's harder to make hardware work, there's less software available, and upgrading is required often and is a pain. Why put up with it? Without interesting and compelling applications, what is the motivation to use Linux (or any open source OS).
This is the reason Linux isn't catching on faster on the desktop. Name one application, available only for Linux that is truly compelling, unique, or more productive than a Windows version of a similar thing. The GNOME dashboard comes to mind, but I have yet to ever get it installed and running at all. Maybe I'll make that a priority soon, to see if it can even be done. Yes, there are some very tech-specific tools that are superior under Linux (lyx, command line tools, etc.), but those don't have wide appeal.
Until there are interesting applications available, getting to people to switch is going to be a hard sell. For that matter, if there is no end user goal that drives a switch, why as professionals would we bother with the recommendation? Cost is about the only motivator, but making a 2 year behind copy of the market leader for cheap distribution is hardly changing the world.
Update: Fixed some bad HTML...sorry about that.
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