Guys, the average user doesnt even know firefox or others are alternatives to shitty Internet Explorer. How do u expect them to make their way through linux? If u use linux, U HAV TO SPEND TIME TO SUIT UR TASTE.
Linux needs a large investment initially in terms of setting up time, which unfortunately people don't have in the professional world, but they hav money. An avg MBA grad who gets laptops from college or buys one usually has abt 8-10 hrs at home daily at max (may be some weekends too). When do you think they will sit around for hrs and make their linux flavor set to their taste buds???
And, there is the notion, "Free OS?" "Better than Windows?" "Surely they are bluffing." "Linux is so complex." blah blah blah... People are so used to the idea of paying for software that they dun fathom the idea of linux. Very few actually pay here fr software proven by rampant piracy. They are so used to using cracked stuff and trial versions, that free software seems impossible...
What we need is more interest from the direct sellers point, help with install, more directly usable OSes instead of self service type OS. Agreed that work is being done here, but a lot remains to be done (Like if anything happens, i still hav to go to terminal, which not everybody can use with ease). Ideally we should target such colleges where laptops are distributed in bulk and preinstall them with Linux instead of Windows. I know in my college out LUG installed Linux at all the 300 computers in our labs using a network install. Professors were impressed by our effort and encouraged it... But putting it in laptops for MBA grads will put us in the mainstream and would hav a deeper impact in the professional world. And in a college, they always hav a incharge person who handles this laptops, maintenance etc. whu can be there to help out students with using linux.