Can Linux Succeed As A First-Rate Gaming Platform?

There's been a discussion that organically started within the forums concerning whether Linux is a "very weak system for gaming", with a variety of reasons being expressed by a number of different Linux users. There's now more than 100 comments on the topic, but do you think Linux can succeed as a first-rate gaming platform?

See the linux, the very weak system for gaming thread to jump in with your opinion on the matter. The original poster's view is that for his system(s) he sees about 50% better performance with Windows 7 over Lubuntu (the LXDE Ubuntu) and that he sees errors/warnings/crashes when trying to install or run a Linux game.

The discussion from there turned into comments about SDL, X11, Wayland, desktop environments, shoddy Linux hardware support, package management, Linux libraries, the Linux user-space API, and the usual other colorful commentary.

We'll see soon enough how well Linux really works out for gaming when Valve begins releasing their Source Engine games, maybe some Unigine Engine titles finally emerging, the various Kickstarter gamers materialize, Unity games surface, and the various other upcoming initiatives that have been signalling hope for Linux gamers. We've already seen that id Software feels Linux hasn't produced positive results and Epic Games turned its back on Tux.