It's funny when an article which aligns itself with "more experienced industry observers" reads like it was written by a kid not yet out of college. The gratuitous digs at anyone who uses software he doesn't like (Opera, Mac OS, Linux), the sophomoric insults at anyone who thinks differently from him ("you probably suffer from learning difficulties", you have "a crystal meth habit", you're a "fanboy"), the poor understanding of where Linux is at, the fact that the only hardware and OS experience he quotes is about his personal machines... son, let us know when your balls have dropped, we might take you more seriously then. Or, if you really are an "experienced industry observer", try to write like one.
Here's what he has to say about Linux:
Linux fans should be very worried indeed. For years, Linux has been a hobbyists OS with an infinite variety of things to tweak and play around with to avoid doing any real work. Google has the marketing nous and clout to make Linux succeed, even if it's only as the platform on which the Chrome browser sits. What this will mean is there will soon be only one version of Linux and it will carry a Google logo. Linux fanboys will have to take up trainspotting or butterfly collecting to fill their leisure hours.
Now, I'm not a fanboy about any software: I'm far too old for that. Linux, Mac OS, Windows: they're just tools, each with its strengths and weaknesses, and not worth making part of your personal identity. But a large part of my job is (co)administering a growing number of Linux servers (currently approaching 100), so his characterisation of Linux as a "hobbyist" platform for "playing around" with, still awaiting something to help it "succeed", is laughable. I assume he's played around with it on the desktop himself, found it wanting, and completely ignored the server space, where its been a considerable success for years already. The above paragraph is the sort of thing you saw a lot of in the 1990s, but the world has moved on.
It's not that everything he writes is wrong. I'm skeptical about netbooks, browser-based applications, and the benevolence of Google, but once you eliminate the misplaced snark from the article, there's really not much left.