10 years ago maybe not, but today things like Unity, Gnome, Mate etc given you a modern, stable and reasonably seamless desktop experience. Even games work now if you look at the recent benchmarks done by phoronix.
But the whole idea of installing an OS is something very few people do or plan to ever do. That itself limits Linux desktops to enthusiasts or managed deployments. People are also used to applications like Office and will always be reluctant to try something else because its not worth their time. There are applications like adobe creative suite and games that tie users to Windows or OSX and force the OS choice.
The only way Linux becomes widespread is if an entity pushes it aggressively like Google does for Android. Without that for the general user what possible reason could there be to turn away from their preinstalled perfectly working windows desktops to reach for Linux?
The privacy concerns. Also, older people like me don't enjoy things constantly changing, so having more control over updates is appealing.
I despise Windows 10, enough that it prevented me from buying a laptop, until I eventually found a vendor willing to install Windows 8.1, which I merely dislike.
I wanted Windows 7 or was willing to try Mint. However they are not available, "no drivers" and so Linux is dead to me.
But the whole idea of installing an OS is something very few people do or plan to ever do. That itself limits Linux desktops to enthusiasts or managed deployments. People are also used to applications like Office and will always be reluctant to try something else because its not worth their time. There are applications like adobe creative suite and games that tie users to Windows or OSX and force the OS choice.
The only way Linux becomes widespread is if an entity pushes it aggressively like Google does for Android. Without that for the general user what possible reason could there be to turn away from their preinstalled perfectly working windows desktops to reach for Linux?