And when the time comes to replace the O2 I have today, maybe my next machine will run Linux. I think Linux is a great thing, in the big picture. It's a great hacker's tool, and it has a lot of potential to become something more. I hope that some day it will have evolved to the point where my mom can take home a Linux box, turn it on, and get on with her life without having to become a Unix sysadmin first, and without having to give up on all the ease of use she's come to expect from allegedly less powerful operating systems. I want to have access to all the applications that I need to do the things that I need to do, regardless.
Operating systems matter deeply to programmers, but in the big picture, they're old news.
It's all about the network, and the applications that let you get benefit from the network. Using a computer isn't an end in itself, it's merely a means to an end. The focus must always be on the task that the person wants to accomplish, to communicate, to learn, to create, to be entertained. Insofar as the computer itself makes itself known in this process, the computer is an impediment. Be humanistic, don't get bogged down in the details.