lack of sensible drag and drop behaviour across applications,
? Windows has very poor D&D. Linux isn't always better, but the middle-click paste is universal and far more flexible than Windows.
I suppose it depends on how one defines sensible behaviour. On Windows I open Word, then drag and drop a .doc file from Explorer onto it. Word opens the file ready for editing. Do the same onto OO Writer from Konqueror and the path to the file is entered into the document! Do it from Konqueror onto Abiword and the drop is refused. Try explaining this to someone who just wants to get their work done.
Linux on the desktop is just about ready for engineers who know what they're doing, or people who have a limited set of requirements needed to fulfill a predictable set of tasks.
That's a little harsh - I don't fall into either group and yet SuSE is perfect for me. I am a self-employed editor, using my computer heavily for web, MSWord, email and many other things that aren't "a predictable set". But I agree that linux isn't really ready for Joe User yet.
So how do you differ from Joe User? Why is it ready for you, but not him? In your case I'd say that web, email and word processing make for a pretty limited work area. How about things like DTP or press ready CMYK graphics? How about web site development? Or CAD? How about a programmable graphical database front end? Or a decent XML/XSL editor? I need all of those on a regular basis. Linux on the desktop has only solved a small subset of the problems users face. It needs time to mature. -- "...our desktop is falling behind stability-wise and feature wise to KDE ...when I went to Mexico in December to the facility where we launched gnome, they had all switched to KDE3." - Miguel de Icaza, March 2003