Seems most people who get there pc will go for windows by default. With many GNU/Linux distributions available are you able to live without windows? I know many applications like many games and other software are not available on Linux but if you do not depend on such applications are you willing to give Linux a try?
Yes, I have developers in my company doing that. I myself live on a mostly console mode only Linux laptop back in my uni days back in year 2002 with only X started as and when I want. Compatibilities are way much better these days, but still not as good as when compared to Microsoft Windows and Mac OS due to vendors support, but with careful selection of the laptops, such as if if you would like to go with Dell, you can get a satisfactory laptop with Linux installation going just fine.
Having said that, while most of the time end-users can get by with Linux without much problem, there are some edge cases where the users need to be more technically savvy than Windows/Mac users.
Depending on your needs and how you work with your machine, Windows may or may not be still required having Microsoft still dominate some really useful software especially Office Suite. In such cases, a virtual machine will come in useful, but officially you will still need a Windows license for the guest OS.
If the environment you are working in doesn't have such dependency, then you can be fully functional with Linux OS. For example, using Google Docs, using web-based 3rd party solutions etc.
For me, other than my Mail client and Safari browser which is the de-facto applications I go to, the next in line is the Terminal(console) app, for such end-users, Linux is normally a breeze. However I am using Mac OS which offers me even more than just a Unix based system.