The established Linux crowd seems to not want Linux taken over by the unwashed masses of non-technorati with their GUIs and mouse-clicketys. ellisons@ seemed like a n00b scared of jumping out of his Windows bubble. The geek-babble can be pretty scary; I know it was to me. And having 300 different distros is kinda off-putting. There doesn't seem to be anyplace you can decide which to use based on your hardware or preferences. One that looked and ran similar to XP on their old machines could be popular, if it didn't have those Unity buttons and ran the old scanners and printers.