Hello,
Without trying to sound pessimistic, I get the feeling that Linux is lagging behind M$ and at a time when its chances of catching up were the best. The gaps that Linux had created in the M$ environment through alternate compatibility appear to be getting slowly filled by M$ through the process of vendor lock-in. Small changes are taking place but in a way that brings people back to Windows. My bank's netbanking website worked superbly in Linux but a recent upgrade in their software has made the entire system Windows IE7+ only. OpenOffice upto 3.3 is unable to save .docx files so it is being rendered useless for the new office systems. Mobile phones still come with Windows only software for their 'Suites' for full functionality on the pc. There is not much happening in accounting, architectural CAD and multi-media packages too, in a way that can replace the use of current commercial Windows based software. It looks like it has hit the pause button. The big Linux giants do not look interested either.