Linux was definitely a worse system back then. But probably not necessarily 10x worse. It definitely got comparatively worse as some Unix vendors added interesting features, but Linux has spent the past couple decades catching up because there was so much money coming in from the people switching from those Unix systems to Linux. :)
I bet a similar effect could happen with the desktop part. Not around price, or we would've already seen it. Actually, I suspect that's really the reason "the year of Linux on the desktop" never materialized: that Microsoft managed to blur the added burden of its licences on the final prices of laptops and desktop computers.
