for some people indeed (Score 1)

It has pretty much been observed here that there will always be people (in this age, and in those to come) who will work out of necessity and survival... we're nowhere close to a utopian sort of "entertainment society" that Linus envisions for us in 150 years or so. There are still plenty of problems in the world for us to deal with... overpopulation, pollution, war, hate, ect. Marx's ideal of "ultimate communism" was for every individual in the society to do whatever work they wanted, almost spontaneously. So a person could one week be a painter, and the next a journalist, and then after that be a plumber, and pursue whatever whims, fancies, or passions that they may have at the time. Linus seems to think, that somehow, we will achieve something like this state of society, where we will do what we do in pursuit of 'entertainment'... where we will do things because of the challenge, or the fun, and that the other needs of society will somehow be fulfilled with a minimal percentage of the population toiling with jobs and lives they are not really happy with. After all, there are plenty of jobs that I can think of where it is difficult for me imagine many people thinking of them as highly fulfilling, challenging, and fun. Maybe technology will get rid of all these unpopular occupations, but I sincerely doubt it... at least for a good long while (longer perhaps than the human race will be able to sustain itself without destroying itself.)

Also, as has been pretty much observed, many people do not need to enjoy or have a real passion for their jobs. People are willing to do something they do not particularly enjoy for a living, in exchange for the net result of having more freedom intellectually, finanically, or in deciding in how to spend one's time.

Finally I'd like to add that Linux is not fun for everybody. Linus seems to be saying that Linux is fun for programmers, which I wouldn't personally disagree with, but for the average person, I think it needs to be understood, playing around with a complex OS (as great as the OS may be) is not their idea of fun. ;) It has nothing to do with not being intelligent, or even with not being interested in the technical functioning of computers. I've been using PCs since the age of 9, and have a fairly respectable degree of experience using/troubleshooting/maintaining them (probably not nearly as much as the average slashdot reader, but probably more than the average C|Net reader) and I have to say that my experiences with Linux have been anything but fun. I've had a great deal of difficultly getting all the elements of a what I'd call a 'functional' computer working under Linux on my PC, and for some reason (which I'm sure is my fault,) Linux is able 10 times more unstable for me than Windows 95 is (lockups nearly every session.) Right now I just have been unable to muster the discipline to make a great effort to understand Linux. I defintely need to buy another Linux book (lost the one I had) and make friends with a Linux guru or two before I move on... and even then, I'm not optimistic (as I once was) that learning Linux will be a bright and fun experience. Meanwhile, using Windows, for me, is a pretty entertaining experience.

BTW, sorry for the length of this post. I'm not very good at being concise, which is one reason (of a few) reasons I'm very shy about posting here. :)