The challenge of Desktop Linux is that it's not a product, it's a project.

Ubuntu is a very successful desktop Linux distro. It's pleasant to use and very modern. Nerds might hate it because Unity doesn't fall in line with Linux "the project" so much as its there to make Ubuntu "the product" better.

Overall, desktop linux as an overarching product failed, but so did mobile linux pre-android, but Android isn't so much mobile linux as it is Android.

Open source is a bit like herding cats and if you don't have a real product you are trying to ship, devs will scratch their own itch.