Maybe the Linux user base doubled last year, but the questions are how many of them are using Linux as their main desktop OS and are they able to use Linux exclusively for their daily tasks? And the even more important question still is: How you can sell your own software to these people?
I'd probably use GNU/Linux or FreeBSD if I had to reboot civilization after World War III. But today I still do not see a way to make a living as an indie (non-games) developer on that platform where everybody expects everything to be free as in speech AND beer. Selling support contracts for your own software in almost all cases is an unrealistic fantasy for one-man armies, especially when you are not writing corporate software, and as we could see with Pegasus Mail, selling printed manuals while giving away the software for free also does not work.
GNU/Linux is fine when you are selling and supporting server platforms (like SUN, IBM, Novell and Red Hat). But there still is no business in GN/Linux (home) desktops.
I'd probably use GNU/Linux or FreeBSD if I had to reboot civilization after World War III. But today I still do not see a way to make a living as an indie (non-games) developer on that platform where everybody expects everything to be free as in speech AND beer. Selling support contracts for your own software in almost all cases is an unrealistic fantasy for one-man armies, especially when you are not writing corporate software, and as we could see with Pegasus Mail, selling printed manuals while giving away the software for free also does not work.
GNU/Linux is fine when you are selling and supporting server platforms (like SUN, IBM, Novell and Red Hat). But there still is no business in GN/Linux (home) desktops.