http://www.linuxandmain.com/tech/robformats.html
Why Linux isn't on the desktop yet
By Rob Landley
The answer to the title of this article is a single sentence, but you'll have to read the whole article to understand it. The Linux community has an amazing blind spot, and I'd like to rant about it a bit.
I keep bumping into programmers who think some program or other is needed to change the world. They're wrong. "Linux just needs this one program and then we'll be ready!" they cry. I generally want to slap these people until they snap out of it (which is kind of hard to do through an internet connection). They are making a fundamentally wrong assumption. It's not about programs. It's about data.
Let me repeat that. Data formats are important. Programs are not.
Remainder of article at above link.