It was not IBM or Microsoft that made the PC THE office computer. It was Lotus 1-2-3. 
It was not Apple that made the Mac THE desktop publishing machine. It was Aldus Pagemaker and QuarkExpress.
Those were the "killer apps", the reason a company would invest in IT. Those were the reasons both Apple and PC/Microsoft got their installed base.
The "killer apps" for Linux are probably Apache, MySQL and PHP. 
All three environments are branching out. You can do office work on a Linux system, you can do desktop publishing on Windows, and you can run a Web server on a Mac (since OSX).
But all three environments still cater to their bases best.

So in the end it's still the applications that determine what hardware and OS are most suitable in your own particular case.

I think Vista is Microsoft second step in branching out to the living room, the first step being Windows Media Center. They're trying to turn the PC into a home entertainment center. But both Microsoft and the PC hardware itself have a long, long way to go.

What do you expect from a TV? You expect it to work and show you moving images within seconds of turning it on. You expect it to always work. It doesn't need updates. It doesn't crash. It is absolutely silent - no humming fans. In standby mode, it consumes very little power, a few watts at most.
The PC hardware and software still has a very long way to go.
Apple will probably make a move in this direction too. And Apple also has a very long way to go.

We'll see.

The pen is mightier than the sword. But if you literally want to have some impact, use a typewriter

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