...especially considering that there are now much more user-friendly distros like Ubuntu out there (which I use as a dual boot on both of my laptops), and they're going to just keep on getting better. Even though I'm only a student right now, it would seem to me that if it were to become more popular that IT Professionals' job difficulty would remain more or less the same. This is because though the accessability of source code makes it much easier to understand how each component functions, such information is haphazardly scattered around the internet... versus having a single main knowledge base to refer to. On the business side of the equation, I think that many institutions would just LOVE the chance to drop Microsoft and their ridiculous royalties, especially with the overall state of the economy... but this is all just my own idle speculation anyway!