> -- the average home user (like my parents) wouldn't serach the web
> for updates and patches very often. They prefer something that works
> reliably and won't need to be edited or touched for years, and as far as
> they're concerned, until it's time to "buy a new computer" (they're used
> to keeping tabs on advances in hardware, not operating systems).
Granted, but the same is true of a Windows box; they're not going
to be searching the web for patches and updates for that either. And it
seems to me that a sufficiently preconfigured Linux box would be just as
good or better than the Windows box, even for pretty clueless computer
users. So long as only stable packages are installed, there's a nice
desktop environment with big buttons to click on, non-CLI ways to do
things, enough software, and an interface for installing new programs at
least as easy to use as InstallShield, that should basically do the trick.
And I can't imagine keeping up with security patches would be much
of an issue for people who'll only occasionally connect up to their ISP.
Matt