What are you basing that on? Drivers on Linux have always been like this and Desktop Linux has always been DOA. OS X is a Linux based operating system that fixed this issue and linux users went to it in droves. You don't see the correlation?
> The real issue is that modern line-of-business application development (which is where the money is) has left the desktop for good.
I agree, the shrinking amount of money that can be made in the Desktop space is an issue. Or at least it's an issue that that's how people see it these days; microsoft is doing just fine with enterprise software licensing and I know more than a few $1M+ revenue line of business software businesses that are not saas based.
In any case, there is a solution for that: go the apple route and make the Linux Distro specifically for a new laptop. The state of laptop hardware these days sucks. It's all commodity junk, even the Thinkpads. Trying to push commodity hardware when the commodity crowd has gone to mobile is a losing strategy, as evidenced by decreasing sales year after year.
There's space for a high quality PC laptop that caters to the power user crowd, including a linux based OS with working drivers and a pleasant UI.
