Re: Chromebooks, but not Linux?
"The other question is why a significant number of folks..."
If you remove those using a pirated copy of Photoshop to post their family photos of Facebook or the like, the paying users choose Adobe product because they are an industry standard that deliver exactly what you need how you need it - and have a large support in any step of the workflow from inception to image delivery.
Professionals needs tool to get a job done as fast as possible - and be paid for it. They have no reason to waste their time (and money) trying to assert a "free software" philosophy they couldn't care less - especially it means less hardware support, less workflow support less 3rd party and industry support etc. etc. - and thereby a lot of wasted and unpaid time to try to make it all work together to obtain the result you need.
Think most of them also use expensive, proprietary, lock-in "traps" like Apple PCs... why? Because the cost of software and hardware becomes almost irrelevant if it helps you to deliver the right product in the right time at the right price.
The idea that the professional needs come first, not a "philosphy" of software used, is something most Linux fans still fail to understand, and explain the Linux irrelevance on the desktop. But nerds, most people don't give a damn about the software they use, as long as it's the right choice to get their job done the way they need. And they don't care if they have to pay for it as long as the prices is perfectly acceptable and will be repaid soon by a smoother workflow and proper result reached without issues.
Only when Linux developers will accept people choose software for what it does and how well, and not how it is developed or costs, they will get a chance for desktop software.