Re: @Roger
My moment of revelation came in 1994, when I downloaded (Slackware?) Linux, installed it on a second drive and used it solely as a remote Xterm to our Unix system. The contrast between the speed of a remote Xterm and local schematic editing software under Win3.1 was enough to convince me that Linux and not Windows was what was going to be on my home PC.
Took a few years (!) before I got god desktop apps, but I'm quite happy with Mint 15.