> Honestly, it's rigodamndiculous how difficult it is to find, download, and install software on Linux.
> At least compared to the Windows/Mac platform.
Searching a package repository is emphatically *not* difficult. Just enter a name, or some keywords if you don't know how it spells.
Easiness of installation by no means implies easiness of *un*installation--quite the opposite, and dll hell ensues. Even more importantly, because any decent project does evolve, there must be some sane and practical way for continual updates and bugfixes to make it to your desktop. Know what is ignorance in this matter? No, not bliss, but a botnet.
And the channels of distribution is what Linux distros are primarily about, with due QA and an ensurance that what you download is indeed what you think it is, but not a trojan-laced freeware. And that's exactly what's dead missing in Windows (albeit Apple AppStore is definitely a move in the right direction).
> For obvious reasons you can't go into a store and purchase Linux based programs.
You don't generally want to. Use your package manager instead. If the piece of software you want is missing, switch to Debian. If it's not in Debian, then probably that piece of software is so freaking exotic that it barely can be something you really, essentially need. Check for a package with the same features/functionality but with a different name, -- be prepared that that different name might seem somewhat non-marketworthy, like 'gimp'. Still need that program? Then you are stuck with Windows. You have my sympathy.
> 2 freakin hours to install some software on CentOS?
I beg your pardon, this is bollocks. Unless someone can prove to me that 'apt-get install stuff' can be made easier. (Yes, I know CentOS is rpm based and hence uses a package manager other than apt-get.)
> That's not going to pass the Granny Test.
Who cares? Since when grannies pass along as competent in this? Why do you spell it with Capitals? Is it a common name like google? Sure, grannies do use computers, but please, spare them the task of *managing* computers.
> people lack the expertise to compile their own programs, use a GUI package manager
These are two vastly different things. In fact, it is exactly the reason why distribution existed in the first place, to save the end user the trouble of needing to compile.
> It has to be made for the unwashed masses.
Washing (hands) helps, really.