I assume that you’ve registered at DISTROWATCH’s http://counter.li.org/

Linux has been declining in use (raw numbers, not % of PCs) in the past few years.

http://distrowatch.com/stats.php?section=popularity
only counts about half the number of living Linux Distros: 317.

Like you, I’d like to push greater use of Ubuntu. But there is SO MUCH work yet to be done. Unlike the 600+ Linux distros, Ubuntu is a democraticaly, openly run non-profit, COPYRIGHT brandname. Linux is also a copyright brandname.

Retired (medical) IT Consultant
Australian Capital Territory

i think the current linux arena is a bit cluttered. there’s SO many distros out there that frankly it would take a normal user a few years just to take a look at all of them and select whats best for him. now variation, independence of developers are certainly top priority, however too much of variation and too much of independence could lead to chaos. the internal one up manship between linux distros (example of which i will not cite) has sort of blinded the main aim. to make linux a popular distro. now dont tell me that linux being popular is not the aim of the community etc. even distro dev wants his/her own OS to be popular. i dont think canonical would ever support linux if it didnt believe ubuntu would become popular someday.

this is what mark shuttleworth says about linux:

“I do believe that free software will come to be widely recognised, trusted and used by everyday computer users, as opposed to being limited to specialists as it is today. Hopefully Ubuntu will play a part in that, but I don’t think one platform will dominate that free software era like Windows dominated the proprietary software era. Ubuntu is focused on specific needs, and there are other versions of Linux or BSD that meet others.

In order to break out from the pack, we need to deliver a desktop experience that is exciting, that is easy to use, and which people are confident will be compatible with their future needs and with those of their colleagues.”

source: http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/148

Do not present the OS as Linux, this just asks for confusion of explaining the development system, licensing, why there are differences etc. Present the complete OS as Ubuntu or Chrome or Fedora (as it essentially is), and leave the Linux explanation for later. Distributions themselves already do this, so methinks the users of those distros should start thinking about doing it too.