I've been there and aware of the situation since the beginning. BSD may have been 'before Linux', but it wasn't the best-promoted set of the group of Unix OS's .. it was always easier to get Linux than BSD. If Linux wasn't doing all the stupid shit that made people re-consider Unix as a personal operating system, I don't think it the idea of Unix on the desktop would have gained as much traction.

Anyway, this is all "what if" line of thought .. just my opinion. But I've been a Linux user since the days of the minix-list, and a user of Unix-based systems since 1980.