Now as for the above quote I find this rather insulting . Lets speak Logic. I'm going to be nice and consider that Linux , Apple cater to 25% of the worlds computer users. You just called 75% of the computer users mainstream noobs? If you believe Linux is not supposed to be mainstream why go to the trouble of posting help in any forum or IRC ? If I'm correct you use Ubuntu as your OS? Look up what the meaning of Ubuntu is.
I am sorry if you got it wrong, but I said windows has much of its user base in people who are NOT hardcore users or power users, i.e. mainstream n00bs. People like the typist next door, the clerk in the shop down the lane, etc fall in this catogary.
And by n00b, I mean a person who is not willing to get his fundamentals right and wants to use something before understanding it properly. Many windows users have no idea whats the difference between a kernel and an OS.
There definitely exist |337 windows users too, lots of them infact. But that doesn´t change the fact that windows n00bs are plenty, and outnumber windows 1337s.
To use linux, you need to be, and I MEAN need to be, well aquinted with some basic internals. Otherwise you will have one hell of a time using it. And now, canonical comes up with this linux for humans philosophy, which is absolutely right, if and only if people remain human and decide to learn. But most people use an OS as if it doesn exist, i.e, they use the computer for wordprocessing, not the OS.
Ofcourse, Linus Torvaldis himself said that an OS must be as hidden from the user as possible. But its my humble openion that one needs to be aware of whats around him. I tend to disagree on such issues. I beleive using words from a language without knowing them is a sin, and the same applies to Operating Systems.
I know kids who imitate others and use Fu*k without even knowing its meaning.
I don´t want linux to end up like that. I prefer people being aware of what they are using.
Finally, I think if linux becomes mainstream, its time for me to pack up and switch to BSD or one of those BSD-Linux unition projects like Gentoo.