Now, for those of use who use desktops, with keyboards and mice, and those of using specialist applications, or those of us who just like our desktop/keyboard/mouse arrangement, it looks to me like Windows ends with Windows 7. There's no doubt that it's evolving to suit the pad, the touchscreen laptop, and the mobile phone. And there's no doubt that it's evolving for the young (and sometimes not so young) socially conscious "yuppi" (to use a London term). However, many of us still use our computers as a tool, and certainly in industry this will remain the case.
We don't need pretty swipe screens (my mouse would probably damage my screen if I swiped it across the monitor). We don't need easy access to facebook, twitter, myspace et al. We don't need immediate access to our media files, and "the cloud" is certainly not a place we want our WIPS in, etc etc. What we do need is quick and functional access to our (often propriety) software that will allow us our productivity use of our PCs.
I make no bones about it, I'm a budding 3D artist, and Linux just doesn't cut it for 3D modelling, motion capture, camera tracking etc etc. Sure, we have Blender, and I use it (both on Windows and Linux) because for some tasks it's better than other applications. For texturing and rendering, my tool of choice is Cinema 4D (Windows only and won't even install with wine, unless you happen to be one of the very few privileged studios who get their Linux version). For modelling generally I'll use Maya (Windows only) and C4D, again with the mandatory etc's. following.
And that's just my hobby. For work I need even more propriety software, that will not run on Linux owing to dependencies on various Windows structures (Sql the Windows way, for example), and though I've spoken to the company, and asked for a native Linux version (and they are even receptive to the idea) it's not going to happen any time soon.
During my "just for the fun of it" time, I'm already a fully linux convert, but I have to have Windows alongside for so many other things. Windows 8 will not provide those other things, and so for me the buck stops at Windows 7. I'm just one person, and I can't imagine that most corporations will want facebook/twitter/myspace/entertainment oriented operating systems in front of their employees day in and day out when they should be working. This means that the corporate world will have to look elsewhere. Mac means a change not only of OS, but a complete H/W change as well, whereas Linux will happily live on most hardware already out in the corporate world.
With that in mind, the direction Windows is taking may finally force developers of propriety productivity software to look elsewhere, and Linux is the obvious place to go. Granted, it won't be free, and it won't be open, but it will increase the number of Linux desktops around the world, and so generally raise the profile amongst the computer population.
2012 could truly mark the start of the "Year of Linux" (which I fully expect to take several years to get to).
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