Right, and I actually am a Linux fan and user, but it's still the fringe OS... too complicated for the other 99% of the market it hasn't grabbed.

Redhat is about as close as Linux has come to being "user friendly" but there remains a serious lack of available programs for Linux, and worse off, a lack of drivers for hardware.

I'm no MS banner waiver, I'm just realistic.  I would love to see another OS come along and take on MS, if for no other reason, because it would force MS to actually perfect their OS prior to releasing them.  Monopolies kill incentives for improvement. 

But, considering just about every PC program ever released in the last 20 years is Windows based, that's a pretty steep hill to climb.  Any OS that steps to the plate almost has to be compatible with programs encoded for use with Windows.  And since that's not legal, it's going to take an underground movement that remains clandestine I suppose... I mean, IBM with OS2 attempted to do it with all of their resourses, but it never was able to leave the shadows of server applications.

MAC OS is as close as it's ever going to come, and in order for it to take off, they either need to start making budget MACs, or just accept their 8% role.

From everything I have seen over the years, I would say it is more likely in the 3-5% range. These internet statistics are unproven and unreliable.

Linux is not too complicated. This is just a hold over from the late 90's when it was not the most user friendly of Operating Systems.

Linux usually does not come pre-installed, so of course one must install it themselves. Every tried to install Windows? Personally I have installed Linux on to PC's of people who could barely turn their computers on. They have no problems using Linux once it set up for them.

I know... like I said, I use it.  It's not too complicated for me either, BUT it is too complicated for the average person.  You know the kind I mean, the half of the world that can't even figure out how to get an MP3 from their PC to their iPod.

Trust me, I've heard the Linux mantra a hundred times, and people still don't use it.  Why?  Because THEY say it's too complicated for them, or that they can't find drivers for their hardware.  It took me countless hours to find drivers for only about 80% of my hardware years ago when I first setup Redhat on my desktop... and I actually know what I'm doing.  But then again, I got my first PC in the early 80s.

A lot of people today are just now getting into computers in general, and really need their hand held on everything from defraging their HDD to sweeping their PC of spyware.

I think the first step to beating MS at their own game doesn't start at the OS level... it starts at the roots.  Continue to degrade the IE market share, and then someone needs to make/market an office suite that is better than and more stable than MS Office.  Preferably a real company needs to do this, and not an open source group of kids.  To beat MS, it takes more than brains, it takes money marketing power.  That's why I said MAC OS is as close as it will come... Apple has money, but their range of computers is just too expensive.  If Apple were smart, they'd find a way to make MAC OS work on a PC and then market it... I guarantee that overnight, MS would lose 20% of it's marketshare in the PC marketplace.

@ssj12 - and how any of them gimicky functions ten years in advance?

You completly missed my point. The point is, if everyone had to install Windows, Windows would be viewed as being too complicated and too hard for the average user.

I only caught a glimpse of this mentioned

But I can buy a Dell with Ubuntu installed on it right now if I wanted. Should I look it up for you guys?

Things like quicksilver or gnome do (just so you can't get a jab on OS bias) really improve the usability and speed while working with the system. All that 3D jazz it's just there to look pretty in videos.

I think another lesson taught by all that flashy stuff is also memory management, it's really hard to believe that all those videos are probably on PC's that have far less ram, cpu power, etc etc. They are as far as I know the most efficient operating systems.

Also as someone mentioned earlier, using your graphics card to do more for your system then just "play games better". It's dynamics for the whole pc :P I don't know all the ins and outs of linux, I wish I did, but when you consider that linux is used to fix our Windows and Mac problems, it makes you wonder :P

Neither is PS3. Right.