Just out of curiosity, how long does it take to master the particulars of an open-source OS, to be able to considerably outperform an off-the-shelf system?
No "mastery" at all. The core UNIX-style system is inherently more efficient, so it "outperforms" what I must assume you mean to be a store-bought Windows system on the same hardware.
The gist of what I think your question really is, which I have to assume, seems to be "how hard is it to make an alternative (again, assuming Linux since that is common in the thread) work better than Windows for me?"
I can't tell you because I'm not you. I can't say what factors are going to "outperform" one way or the other in your subjective opinion.
What A.L. can't stand is that I'm not telling everyone to use Linux, I'm countering his misinformation. He, rather, is telling everyone just how bad everything but Windows is for everyone.
If Windows is what works best for you, then by all means use it. I suggest not to avoid trying other things, since at the worst doing so will make you appreciate what works for you even more.
What I mean is, all the little tweaks that must be performed when you have conflicts. That seems to be the thing I see the most: "I had to blabedy-blah the such-n-such to get it to recognize [whatever]"
I plug in my camera, it reads the card. I plug in my printer, it says Hello Printer! I haven't installed a driver in a long time. Everything reads, everything works. I used to get very frustrated with Win98, before everything was plug-n-play. I download a program, click [accept] the terms, and away we go.
This may seem lazy, but I don't even have to read the stuff carefully on the box if I buy hardware or software. I buy what I need, what I like best. I don't have to wonder if it'll work, or fuck with it to get it working. Even if I went beyond what I'm comfortable with, like buying a new hard drive or video card, I'm fairly sure I could just buy a good one and pop the fucker in. (I'd read some forums first, of course, in case there was some tricky trick)
I understand and respect the fact there is a hobbyist aspect to geeking, like Furb so eloquently stated. Thats cool. My hobbies lie elsewhere. For many of us, the machine has become the hub of a general entertainment lifestyle. I turn it on, it makes me happy. Taking it apart or fiddling with the code does not make me happy.
Now, get ready for a laugh. In my little universe, I'm the resident geek. Parents, kids, friends, I'm the one they come to when their stuff is fucked up. I can usually get it goin', and if it wasn't for M$, I'd never be able to help them if everyone was running a different OS. It'd be a huge pain in the balls. They used to pull that shit at work, custom device bullshit which they'd have to configure, conflicts out the ass. Probly why I'm so resistant to stuff like that. I like simplicity, having been trapped and tortured out of workplace necessity, having to stick with it, and put up with crap. Calling out techs at 2am to fix their own mistakes. Fucking around in little dossy dialogue boxes with improperly trained support fucks over the phone who had no clue what they were actually doing. That shit is torture.
Microsoft is a godsend, as far as I'm concerned. If it wasn't for them, there'd be another widely utilized "industry standard" OS, I'm sure. And I'd use that.