Wrong... Linux is not plagued by "programme and driver incompatibilities". A basic program consists of binaries, libs and config files built to run on a particular architecture and OS. It will either be compatible or it won't be. If it's incompatible then it's not built for that OS/architecture. The same goes for drivers, unless you're referring to proprietary drivers. These have always been an issue, because they're only as good as the hw manufacturer make them. They're also not open source so the community cannot fix problems with them as they can with all other OSS.
You're also wrong about aftersales support. If you want to actually buy a stable LTS distribution on discs, then you can purchase a support option for quite a few distributions. The GNU/GPL licence means that though software cannot be sold, the discs, manuals and support packages can. For all other non enterprise, free distributions there are support forums, which are usually very good.
I can only think that your opinion of Linux comes from limited experience with unstable and improperly marketed distros such as the Ubuntu family and it's spin offs, bleeding edge distros such as fedora or from user unfriendly (but rock solid) ones such as Slackware? Slackware does not even ship with a desktop manager, so it's out of the question for the beginner. Ubuntu (despite marketing) is bleeding edge and uses a lot of beta and alpha software in their releases. It is basically Debian unstable with lots of features and extras including compiz fusion added. It tends to draw in new users who then tend to come unstuck and fall flat.
For newcomers there are distros such as Debian "Lenny", Arch, OpenSuse, Mandriva etc which all have good stable releases.
For something stable and supported then you can put your hand in your pocket and go for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop.
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