I agree that Directx is a bad thing for the industry and the government tried to break M$ up in the 90's for violation of anti trust laws, do i think they broke the law? **** yes but there is little i can do, and until linux, macos and the other OSs out there can come up with an alternative that is so much better than DX that using Dx would be stupid, Windows will have one huge redeeming quality that the others cant overcome.
In short until i can get Counter strike Source to run seamlessly under linux the general public will not fully accept it.
I think however Linux has made huge inroads in a market that has been historically a windows dominated market. What linux needs now is ease of use and out fo the box usability. None of this I have to download extra stuff to play MP3s because of licensing, or the default install lacks WiFi support. if the Linux community wants to become a powerful mainstream force the bigger distros need to drop the Geek factor and think more about how grandpa will check his email, and how 6 year old sally will listen to her backstreet boys cd.
Although i personally dont use ubuntu that much due to personal OS preference i think they are a great example of what the Community on the whole needs, Im not saying we cant have our slackware's and Knoppix's out there, but Linux needs a new image, one of professionalism, ease of use, and mainstream appeal. Not one of 30 year old geek in his mom's basement hacking the white house.