Wow Ed.. That is quite a story you are making us read.
I like the way you're thinking on this as also how you try to find the right middle ground and compromise from an end users point of view.
I do think you have a good chance there.. your idea of finding one right formula that can be sold as a total product is what end users will like about it.
I personally think openSUSE is a good choice. Especially if you back up openSUSE with good knowledge and support that the end user can turn to. That's the thing making it harder for starters to find their way though it... it can be a hard long learning curve.
This was also true once for people having to use Windows.. It's a common use thing now, Windows, and many safeguards have been built in to keep things runing and stuff added to mask the bad and dangerous bits.
Anyway, enough of my years have been filled with frustrated users calling me because the PC (Windows) won't do what they want them to.
Linux might be facing a similar thing.
During it's growing pains, MS had a couple of things going for them.
A) the market was still fresh... sure Apple was a big brand name, but Windows was easy to get by and inexpensive (also read the words illegal installs here
)
B) With the OEM bundling and support, systems c(a)(o)me preinstalled.. ready for work and you only have to run a couple of setups to get going.
We've come to a point where 90 percent of the people just want to be able to Internet, have multimedia, do standard type processing.
The OS is less important as (almost) all consumer OS'es are able to deliver this.
So.. If you can find a/the right formula that fits
'cheep & easy handling' along with 'great -affordable- support' .. then you will have something holding much potential.
If this desktop can also handle all the common formats thats being thrown at it.. i think you should have a winner.
Make enough waves and others will join you.
Ps. I'm also wondering... what would be the strong points of Linux over Windows? Is that enough to convince an enduser comfortably tucked into Windows?