Umm... this title doesn't even need an article (Score 1)

You could have skipped the article completely by using a more accurate title: "Why Linux isn't spreading - the curse of being complicated and arcane." Don't get me wrong, I love Ubuntu, and Linux is rock-solid in most cases. Immensely valuable. But my nerd alarm goes off even during the INSTALLER for most distros. Pick a graphics card. Pick a resolution. Pick a refresh rate. How do you want to partition your hard drive? What format do you want for the partitions? Blah blah blah. Dammit, I just want to install an OS! Maybe you, me, and the next techie guy doesn't mind debating the virtues of ext4 over ext3, how big your swap partition should be and where to put it. Maybe a lot of people don't mind selecting their model of graphics card and setting resolution manually. It's all about choice, right? "Oh noes, don't lock me into one way of doing things! Freedom, baby!" Yeah, fine, but Joe Blow doesn't even know what a partition is, doesn't give a crap what filesystem he uses, and has no clue what graphics card the geek at the computer shop put in his beige box. Man, I'm not saying cut down on the power and flexibility of Linux, but out of the box it needs to be so simple your grandma could install and use it before it's going to take off. I'm talking about downloading a file that's a few megs, running it, and it automatically repartitions your drive, installs linux, and sets up your machine for dual-booting, with all drivers installed and working for your hardware, no extra configuration necessary. Because until that happens, 99% of the world can't be bothered to go through the gauntlet required to switch to an alternative OS.