BEOS may never have been sucessful, but it also might have been had microsoft not actively squashed it. Its nice to try and quarter back last saturadays game, but it doesn't change the outcome.
Linux is not competitng with windows, in any fashion what so ever on the desktop. Well it does, but only in the server space and areas where you need alot of heavy os customization. Servers, Embeded and supercomputing or High performance computing server farms. Linux does very well there. On the desktop however. Its not a competition.
Well, since 99% of the computing market is full of computer and code illiterate people. thats whats killing linux. Most linux proponents don't want to hear it. there are other operating systems which offer the same freedoms as linux without the fractured development landscape and hodge podge of work around tools.
Its not a strength. Its a weakness becuase no one has stood up to people who insist on needing some silly unque little widget for one application. the linux API is a mess on the desktop. Unifiying the API would good a long way to making more 3rd party developers like adobe get on board with tools like photoshop etc.
Linux needs one really good GUI enviroment, it just needs to integrate the best features of each and be done with it.
Toss the package manager out the window and have a look at what apple is doing with mac, download unzip and run. they grew their market share 20% in the last 5 years. Its working.
thats a good start.

