The author of this article seems to think Linux in the desktop is dead, with so many missed opportunities, especially during the failure of Windows Vista, they will never break into the market now that Win 7 is so successful.
In some ways I agree, but personally, I never thought Linux even had a chance with the average user on a home system. Being in IT, like most peeps in my field, I have become the “help desk” for family and friends; I really do not think the average user is ready for it. Add in the lack of applications and games that are available, it really did not stand a chance. I design and write software, the development costs these days are huge, and the money peeps want a good ROI to out weigh the risks, developing from scratch or even porting an existing app is just too risky.
On the business end, ever since the SOHO fiasco where they were threatening to sue any and all companies that were using Linux, many of my large clients, including a major international bank, dropped Linux as a server operating system faster then you could say Penguin. I remember sitting in a systems and architectural conference call at the bank, they had just spent the past month or two doing a risk assessment of the chances of being sued by SOHO; they considered it to be high as their Linux supplier was IBM. They then presented their operating costs of the data centers running Linux and data centers running Windows over the past few years, the costs and risks were lower for Windows; within 6 months all the servers were Windows.
On the other hand, the new Apple products are Linux based and are very successful, so with the right backing, the money to support and write applications, Linux could everything their supporters want it to be and I wish them luck.