"HELLO, REAL WORLD"
Looks like using Skype, (now a part of eBay), can be that much close to mainstream use given this upcoming product (picture below) from US Robotics (via UberGizmo and memeorandum):
"USB Adaptor for Skype on Normal Phone
Thanks to the USRobotics USB adapter, any standard telephone can be used with Skype. The USR809620 adapter mutlitasks by keeping your phone connected to the standard landline at the same time.
Echo cancellation and advanced signal processing gives clear call quality over PSTN lines or Skype. You can even forward Skype calls to your mobile phone with call waiting features. Your caller ID will either display the caller's phone number or Skype ID, depending on where it's coming from. Nothing on price or availability yet."
One of the key reasons for not using Skype, given by some friends of mine whom I consider to be truly "mainstream", 
is that they find it "unnatural" using a PC or a laptop as a telephone.
For a lot of regular folks, despite all the efforts of the internet telephony (aka VOIP) industry to date, these services are still not "as easy as using the phone".
We geeks tend to sometimes forget that the telephone has had more than a century to cultivate a culture of habits that need to be modified and/or overturned with some of these new ways to do the same old thing.
Despite my recommending all other manner of products that make it easier to use Skype (cordless phones and headsets, etc.), they still don't think of Skype as a "normal" phone service, differences in price aside.
Third-party innovation around Skype's universe continues to make cool things possible. Russell Beattie describes a new piece of software called EQO, that enables using the Skype service on a regular cell phone (or "mobile" as the continentals call them). But the process of setting up this initial version is one that only a geek would have the patience to go through, as Russell helpfully explains.
Coming back to the US Robotics product, it remains to be seen if the USB product makes it any more natural, but hopefully it's a step in that direction.
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