Glyn Moody has written a beautiful eulogy for the Windows desktop of yore, one that I heartily encourage you to read.

For many years, people in the free software world have dreamed of a day when GNU/Linux would replace Windows on the desktop....[I]t seems unlikely that GNU/Linux will ever take over the desktop from Windows. But that does not mean that Windows will maintain its dominance there, simply that the future is more complex than the monoculture we have seen and suffered for nearly two decades.

Moody touches on a range of threats to Microsoft's desktop dominance, and in the process uncovers a rising threat to both Microsoft's desktop dominance and user freedom. The culprit? The cloud.

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