Oh so you don't think *nix is not just a bunch of hacked together programs??? After I installed Ubuntu and Fedora 11 they both went to their respective web sites and downloaded updates. Even after that I couldn't get the sound to work right, but I found a tutorial that explained how to uninstall something (I forget what) then download something else. It was quite a lengthy tutorial -- but worked. Even after all that I still can not play movies that are on DVD, I understand that's because the drivers are not installed with the os.
I have Windows 7 Home Prem and everything worked perfectly after installing the os. Perfect sound, plays both blue-ray and normal DVD movies, youtube videos (with sound 
Now tell me who has the hacked operating system.
Lol, I'm not going to argue with you there. I've had all those "issues" as well. Linux is not marketed as a "plug-and-play" system. Until somebody can provide a distro that does that, it will not be marketable at all. But, once you get all of that to work, you will have a much more stable, secure and efficient OS. Hands down. Linux is not for the faint of heart. It's for people who A. Aren't afraid of getting their hands dirty and doing some low-level work, installing drivers, configuring hardware etc. B. People (like me) who could use some humility.
I mean, put together a bunch of ad-hoc components, get your elbows dirty and you have a end result product better than Microsoft. I've had all the issues you've had and have spent some frustrations getting things to work. But they do and it's awesome.
So I have two closing thoughts: Windows will remain dominant because A. It's cheaper than a mac and B. There isn't a distro that provides the level of integration that you are looking for.
But, conversely, any business infrastructure worth it's salt will rely on *nix servers to run their networks. Exchange servers may be well and good for the office LAN, but enterprise systems will always be dominated by Unix.
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