The Mindcraft and PCWeek fiascoes only piled insult to injury, and the Gartner Group's wee study only made it look more dismal. The small investor has heard naught but good things about Linux, and wants in on the ground floor. This flush of good press is making everyone that I've seen, both on and offline, quite excited to get in and launch the next big revolution in computing. Of course, only time and markets will tell which of the numerous IPO's and Linux start-ups will actually make it to the top. Stand and Deliver.
Expectations are high.
I dare say that they are higher now than they were back when, say, MS Windows 2.0 was first released. Nowadays, almost everyone has a computer in there house, and the majority know just enough about them to be dangerous. Therefore, the consumer wants something that will make their current Wintel box bigger, badder, but easier to use. However, one had better be careful in how word of any Linux trouble gets out, lest it become a cascading problem that gets the press to writing about Linux once again with poison ink. It will be very hard for the press to rack up expectations higher than Linux' potential, but it can happen, and we should be aware of it.