You mean the Linux Desktop, not Linux. Torvalds heads the Linux kernel - it is already the most successful piece of software in existence with the highest number of users and very good user experience. Android is Linux, most routers are Linux, etc.
The Linux Desktop has nothing to do with Torvalds directly and needs, as you say, a dose of "just works". That "just works" isn't a technical thing as most people seem to believe though. "just works" is more about downloading an app for your airline and having the app do everything for you, and phoning the airline's help desk and having the help desk actually understand what you're using. This takes massive buy-in from society into a standard platform and a standard platform is something the Linux desktop has generally fought against tooth and nail for various reasons.
If Steam can provide that platform, Microsoft is going to be in serious trouble. It seems doubtful at this point though as Steam seems to be heading more in the direction of a console or Android-like implementation rather than a general purpose computing platform.
Okay, let me back-track a little and clarify my point. Yes, I mean Linux desktop. Linux server/routers/other operational devices has seen widespread adoption. I largely disagree with your assessment that it's user friendly, I've spent the last month fighting with my Linux router just to get built in features to work properly for one reason or another. But that's another story and I'm sure is related more to my incompetence with that distro of Linux than it is to anything else.
However, touching on that point (my incompetence with Linux), I'd say I'm largely representative of the non-Linux-professional crowd... even with my nerdclination. If something is that much of a pain in the ass for non-professionals to pick up and use, it just won't see such widespread adoption.
I'm really confused here, you talk about problems with Ubuntu and being a representative of the average Joe, but something tells me the situation is quite the opposite.
I entered the Linux world with no knowledge of it at all and had no relevant education. My computer expertise was building them myself and Windows general use. Ubuntu 10.04 at the time was my first experience, and while it was unfamiliar to me the (old) gnome desktop gave me an easy time of it, imo.
I wasn't trying to do anything heroic, I wanted a desktop that did the stuff I wanted, and it did. I should think that more represents the average Joe.
That said nowadays I hate Ubuntu, I feel it brings little of what it is supposed to bring on the software side. When you have a problem, the OS is so cluttered there are multiple solutions that may or may not work for any given issue, that sets the entry bar far, far higher than for instance getting into a desktop environment from the ground up in Arch.
As an advanced user your mistake was going Ubuntu, not going Linux.
It isn't the easier distro, it is only the one where you have to do the least from BIOS check to a desktop environment. That is not a hard thing for others to catch up on.
The Linux Desktop has nothing to do with Torvalds directly and needs, as you say, a dose of "just works". That "just works" isn't a technical thing as most people seem to believe though. "just works" is more about downloading an app for your airline and having the app do everything for you, and phoning the airline's help desk and having the help desk actually understand what you're using. This takes massive buy-in from society into a standard platform and a standard platform is something the Linux desktop has generally fought against tooth and nail for various reasons.
If Steam can provide that platform, Microsoft is going to be in serious trouble. It seems doubtful at this point though as Steam seems to be heading more in the direction of a console or Android-like implementation rather than a general purpose computing platform.