My grandmother learned to use Links browser in terminal. I sometimes use telnet to send emails via SMTP. But most people would probably call it 'unusable garbage'.
Usability == productivity.
Usability == productivity.
By contrast, Windows 8, with the big pastel tiles and simple typography is by a long way the most n00b-friendly, regular-folk-focused, detail-hiding desktop OS that Microsoft has ever done. IMHO the problem is not usability for simple tasks, it is that MS have been alienating the power-users in chasing after this mass market that seems to want simple things.
I'm not saying that the "normal people" market is stupid or unskilled - they could be lawyers or doctors. Just that they don't care about computers as much as IT professionals do, they want the computer to just work, and in a simple way while they do something that they do care about.
Maybe windows 8 is not what people want. But it certainly isn't because it's too much like telnet.