The only thing that is a mess in linux is sound. With all the pulseaudio/alsa BS, I can't have sound if I want to wine games. BUT, for example, the big stuff like X.org and many kernel segments are managed by professionals, like some apple dude is managing X.org at the moment, whilst nokia/intel are developing new modules for it. It is not just some god damn nerds in a basement that are dev'ing linux, it's all of the major companies that are using it AND the enthusiasts, mainly because the big companies benefit from it. And it sort of is like a big (but slow) grow cycle, companies dev it further, more "civic" people use it, percentage of them start to dev it further, companies see more potential in it so they dev further.