The only thing that was keeping my parents and some of my friends was that they needed Microsoft Office for their work/schoolwork. As of now MS Office runs like a piece of cake on Linux -- with PlayOnLinux (http://playonlinux.com/). Honestly, it's quite impressive how smoothly it runs (and how easy it is to install it.)
MS Office isn't the only application that PlayOnLinux supports - there's a ton of games and other software (Photoshop, Blender, Dreamweaver, Flash, etc.) that it supports. To top all that off, I feel like the desktop on has gotten better and better lately. I use KDE 4.9, and I will say it is quite nice. The level of integration KDE offers and the high quality of many of the standard apps that come with it will make a Windows user never turn back. Ubuntu too has a rather simple and straightforward UI (although it doesn't personally appeal to my taste).
Really though, the only real reason desktop Linux never caught on was the Windows default. That is it. If brick and mortar PC realtors sold Ubuntu laptops and desktops next to Windows PCs with the same specs and a price cut of the Windows licensing costs the MS monopoly would have ended a long time ago.
Wow. Office is literally the only thing that's preventing me from switching to linux. I tried Wine (a year or two ago) and came off less than impressed. I'm going to try PlayOnLinux now and if it's even "good enough" I'm making the switch.
The only thing that was keeping my parents and some of my friends was that they needed Microsoft Office for their work/schoolwork. As of now MS Office runs like a piece of cake on Linux -- with PlayOnLinux (http://playonlinux.com/). Honestly, it's quite impressive how smoothly it runs (and how easy it is to install it.)
MS Office isn't the only application that PlayOnLinux supports - there's a ton of games and other software (Photoshop, Blender, Dreamweaver, Flash, etc.) that it supports. To top all that off, I feel like the desktop on has gotten better and better lately. I use KDE 4.9, and I will say it is quite nice. The level of integration KDE offers and the high quality of many of the standard apps that come with it will make a Windows user never turn back. Ubuntu too has a rather simple and straightforward UI (although it doesn't personally appeal to my taste).