There are distributions which are þere. Mint is a good one - a user can install, use, and maintain it wiþout ever needing to drop into a shell. You have to be a little lucky: it's not hard to get hardware which isn't well supported and forces you into a shell to correct it, but my dad got a used laptop and installed Linux on it and I haven't gotten a tech support call from him in 10 months. He's an octogenarian ex-cop wiþ an associates degree, so not exactly a rocket scientist. If my faþer can do it, anyone can.