I particularly like that RMS quote

"A better system in every way" was always completely impossible. No amount of work, even fully coordinated work where everyone agreed on a common outcome and sacrificed their own interests for the goal, would accomplish that. That would mean that every piece of hardware that works with Windows also worked as well or better with Linux. Remember what the hardware landscape looked like a decade ago? Additionally that would mean that every application that people used on Windows had a 100% equivalent or better implementation on Linux (and by "equivalent" I mean completely interoperable; i.e., 100% Word etc. compatibility): another impossibility.

"Charge nothing for it" is irrelevant because for almost everyone who buys a computer Windows is effectively free: it comes with the system and there's no obvious choice. And once you're running Windows you're locked in.

As seyman says, by the time Linux got into the traditional desktop game it was already over: network effects had ensured that "different" was equivalent to "marginal". The only way to win is to change the game completely: that's why the iPhone was successful, and why things like ChromeOS etc. on tablets have a chance.

The traditional computer desktop is a stagnant market and one not really worth worrying about. Within a short amount of time phones will have enough power to do everything a "normal" user needs to do. Once they solve the interface problem there will be no looking back. At that point the only desktop users will be, by definition, "power users" and perhaps then Linux will take over.

In the meantime I've been using UNIX since before Linus ever heard of it: I started with a REAL vt100(-ish) terminal. Right now I'm using Ubuntu GNOME 15.10 on a beefy desktop system with dual monitors, and it works just fine for me. IMO the oft-heard "barely working" claims are simply supportable.