Absolutely loved the list and agree on all.

>the only danger is you'll install absolutely everything on offer.

I agree with this, Ive installed PCLinuxOS on my dad's desktop and mom's laptop and both are in their 70's. Dad has grasped VMing for his XP only apps and both have found the transition smooth. They used the same freeware like VLC, OO,Firefox, Thunderbird, Gmail, Skype on XP so it wasnt but once they go how to install programs BOTH added EVERY card, board,sudoku,etc games in the repositories ;-)
(who am I kidding? I keep saying that Im gonna learn Blender one day!)

My mother loves Compiz and that the clock on her KDE desktop font can be enlarged easily, she loves to fiddle the look of her different desktops and my dad is amazed what his old Thinkpad T21 can do with Xubuntu.

They have problems understanding the differences between the desktop GUIs like KDE, GNOME, XCFE and distros at first when I gave them the live CDs but like with the majority of people that I know who have made the switch, KDE seems to be favorite by a big margin.
Kubuntu and PCLinuxOS are the installs I do for family and friends and my 'tech support' time has dropped about 90% as a result.

Most importantly, Linux is truly green (your #6). It can offer for old hardware a beautiful fully functional modern OS.
If you want for run Vista, you HAVE to buy new hardware (and even then), period.
And Im not going to even bothering rehashing Apple's hardware/software lock-in.

I have never offered to install Linux on a computer, but I have always accepted to do when asked. People are more aware of Linux thanks to the EEE laptop and low cost lines and the thing that always amazes people after youve talked/showed to them for a while is that there is no single standard "Linux look". People have been told for so long that its a bit disconcerting.
You often hear people say that there are too many distros. I think the more we have the more the fringe ones can be innovators which the rest will eventually benefit from.
A Red Hat or Ubuntu might be less willing to try something totally radical but BillyBobLinux which is a derived from a big name distro might try a whole new concept, hone it and maybe it will be picked up by other distros.
This insures cutting edge techology for the future.

Btw, so agreed about Compiz. I turn it off because Im really not into eye candy but whenever I want the 'wow' factor as you say, it just blows people away.
After listening to my fanboi friends drool over their Mac 'amazing', I always have to bring them back to earth with what the free stuff can do.
After suffering through the years of bad performance, I can proudly put up these effects that I dont care to use, because people react to eye candy. Plain and simple.

Go back 18, 36 months and you wouldnt have dreamt of saying that.

Btw, I re-installed Linux and XP on both my parents computers at the same time and it the XP side was much longer with all the anti-virus, adware, firewall to fine tune.

Its a good time to be a Linux user. There are plenty of great free distrops out there to be proud of and that EVERYONE can use.
It really is for your parents and grandparents now.