Yeah gnu tried and not to be too harsh failed with mach and hurd. They designed an OS according to their principles and nobody came to the party. Heck, mach uses Linux device drivers which tells you how much effort volunteers are willing to put into each project.
I don't think we'll see a change from Linux and Windows (edit: and IOS) until there's another compelling reason to switch; some feature that can't or won't be available in the other two operating systems and their surrounding ecosystems of software.
When was the last time we really had a "Visicalc sold more Apples than Apples sold Visicalc" moment? I can't think of one after Linux wafflestomped all the propietary hardware and os unix vendors, or to give Apple their due, when they released the iPhone.
Edit: duh, of course cloud taking over for bespoke hardware and software defined storage pushing out EMC and the like are two recent examples of industry game changers, but on the other hand both still rely primarily on Linux so my assertion about operating systems still stands.
I don't think we'll see a change from Linux and Windows (edit: and IOS) until there's another compelling reason to switch; some feature that can't or won't be available in the other two operating systems and their surrounding ecosystems of software.
When was the last time we really had a "Visicalc sold more Apples than Apples sold Visicalc" moment? I can't think of one after Linux wafflestomped all the propietary hardware and os unix vendors, or to give Apple their due, when they released the iPhone.
Edit: duh, of course cloud taking over for bespoke hardware and software defined storage pushing out EMC and the like are two recent examples of industry game changers, but on the other hand both still rely primarily on Linux so my assertion about operating systems still stands.