IronicallyTwisted said:
Ubuntu is boasted as the most user friendly distro and you certainly do have to use commands for more complicated tasks. Not to mention hardware detection is subpar, and the drivers are still terrible for graphics cards.
Then evidently Ubuntu isn't that user friendly, because I can even administer pop3 and samba servers without recurring to the command line.
I don't even need a program to do that because a SuSE linux box publishes on a tcp port (if you want) a java applet version of VNC, so you only need to point your browser towards your machine and you can manage it.
Also, the mass market I'm sure can do without more complicated tasks; give them web access, office applications, p2p, media playing capabilities, cd/dvd burning, games.. All the stuff you need is there. And most of the times you don't even need to download it because it's part of the install DVD.
Oh, and about hardware detection: this week I got a brand new nice tv/monitor; Windows couldn't use it properly until I popped in a CD, while Linux automatically suggested me to use a 1680x1050 resolution; same was for the laser printer. Anedoctal, sure, but nowadays the better support is not determined a byproduct of the OS architecture anymore.