A pretty damning conclusion
> The view was that the relatively light and predictable requirements of [professional and transaction] users such as these ...
So according to this article, desktop Linux is only suitable for intelligent / experienced people (would that be because it's too hard for the rest) and those who don't use it much anyway.That seems to be to be pretty much who uses desktop Linux today, anyway - so there are no surprises there. In fact if that really is the case, you've got to wonder what the future for desktop Linux is (although we've already beaten this topic to death).
However, earlier in the article, it talks about internet delivery of applications and services. In which case all you need is a browser. There is already an initiative to burn a Linux kernel into a PC's BIOS, so the box effectively boots Linux off it's own hardware - rather than needing a disk with an O/S installed. Maybe this is the future: to turn Linux into a firmware product and PCs into embedded devices with no local storage (or just an SSD with a database on it, to preserve state information across reboots).
Will this be the death of operating systems?