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The statement is both right and wrong.
Right in the sense that many users today can't handle Linux yet, but wrong in the sense that Linux itself is not the fault for that.
First of all, most problems with driver availablity, etc, stems from the fact that there is a small minority of people using Linux. Linux needs people such as myself (I'm not trying to be pompous or anything, I just mean people who are not programmers but use Linux because of the ideologies behind it and freeedom it provides) to be using it and put their money behind it so that companies for webcams, digital cameras, printers, etc put THEIR money into the fairly simple task of developing drivers for it as well as Windows. As far as things like it being hard to save to a floppy, that's a simple matter of there being a distro that makes it easy. Some distros do not make it easy and are obviously not meant for your average desktop user - such as Gentoo - but other distros are easily ready. Mandrake automatically mounts the floppy when it is inserted, so saving to it is just as easy as saving to a floppy in Windows.
When a user is required to install and set up Linux themself, it is most certainly not ready. But I am more than confident that if Mandrake or a similar distro were pre-installed on a system and set up in a way designed for home use - and if the drivers would be provided by more manufacturers - that my mom could easily use Linux for what she needs a computer for. Sure, tech support will be necessary from time to time - but it is with Windows as well. IT is with anything new. When my parents first got a computer, and again when they first got a computer with a post Windows 3.1 OS, they made many calls to tech support. Those calls always lessened as time went on. That's what happens when you try something new.
The Red Hat CEO is correct in saying that Linux overall is not ready for the average consumer desktop use. If you look at all distros as a possibility that's an easy conclusion. But there are a few distros that are capable of being ready. He was not wrong in saying, however, that users should stick with Windows. A MUCH better way to put it is that the average user should approach Linux with caution and realize that it works very differently from Windows and that tech support will likely be needed from time to time.
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"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling
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