Well, to be fair, Windows is still the best OS choice for consumers.
I don't use it myself, as I've got Debian/Ubuntu on my workstations, and Debian on the servers. I used to have a Mac, which is user-friendly and decent for all kinds of users.
But Windows is friendly to consumers, it has the best application support, and it does install on commodity hardware. I tortured my wife at some point with Ubuntu on her home computer, but it really didn't work out. I mean, even I have a laptop with a dysfunctional wireless, and just yesterday Debian-testing broke my Gnome setup.
If you want to help out Linux/BSD to gain more market-share, it doesn't help pretending it's a good choice and that Windows is used because of "inertia". The way I see it, Linux/BSD missed their opportunity a long time ago.
It took a long time to displace COBOL. Microsoft's technology is not superior. Their main advantage is the shady deals they have with computer manufacturers that push their software to people who don't know they do have options.
Oh... and BTW, where are the sales figures for all the people who download, say, Debian or CentOS or *BSD or OpenSolaris and just go about doing their business without showing in any sales chart?
That said, I find both Debian and OpenSolaris have strengths Microsoft doesn't. Do they have software management comparable to APT? Do they have file storage comparable to ZFS? Instead, people learn to live around their limitations and fail to notice there are better choices to whatever came bundled with their computers.