[tychoish]

I think the definition of "mainstream" audience, in the first paragraph is the beginning of the problem.

If we continually redefine the "mainstream" audience to lower and lower common denominators, as the people who don't know and care about the technology they use, why should they ever care to use linux?

One of the biggest powers of free software is it's ability to teach people about computers and how technology works, lets start from there.