Will The Linux Desktop Soon Be Irrelevant?

“Some of us are still waiting for the year of the Linux desktop.
Some think it’s already here. One thing is certain however,
Linux does not have a majority desktop market share. By the time we
get there, perhaps the entire idea of what a Desktop is will have
been re-defined, thanks to “The Cloud”.

“…OK, so we’re not there yet, but think about this – how
many people actually use an email client on their home computer? I
honestly don’t know the figures (and I’m sure
it’s still a lot), but the last time I used one was about 5
years ago and even then it was Mutt via SSH to my local mail
server. Could we expect to see email clients dropped from default
Linux installations over time? Heck, Ubuntu even got rid of GIMP
because it’s not cool.

““The Cloud” reminds me of “.NET” and
“Web 2.0″ where no-one really knew what they meant at
the time. Distributed computing has been around much longer than
this idea of “the cloud” which sounds like some new
fancy, happy place. All that doesn’t matter though, things
are going to the cloud, a place where all your dreams can come
true. Or where anyone can steal your information. Well, I’m
sure it’s one of those anyway.”

Complete
Story