And another thing...

"They're giving up on a big market segment by abandoning consumer desktops."

Or maybe they're approaching it in the way that makes sense for them, by first finding a few
niche markets that allow them to continue to support desktop work.

Microsoft and, to a degree, Apple essentially own the metaphor of a desktop... but they don't
necessarily own the hearts and minds of home users. Just suppose there's a better metaphor, a
better way to present information to users, a better design that is not based around the
notion of a desktop with objects on it, but is based on some other paradigm entirely.

The desktop model has been useful in the past, but how many people actually use their computer
that way? I have no idea what alternative model you could use, but let's suppose there is one.
What then?

Well, it'd not competing with Microsoft on Microsoft's home turf, it'd not be playing catch-up
with Microsoft's capabilities, it'd not be attempting to replace a very firmly entrenched user
mindset. Rather, it would be seen as something altogether new (which is usually seen as good)
and incidently doing eveything the user wants (which is also good). I imagine that was part of
the idea behind XO, which has done a fairly decent job of coming across as something genuinely
different but is unfortunately still somewhat desktop in look and feel.

Could Linux try winning by entering a different race entirely? Fresco a.k.a Berlin seemed to
be looking at trying a different approach - fragmetable linked windows isn't exactly a desktop
concept. Xrooms also seemed to want to try going a different way. Both have long-since
vanished into history. Clearly, if that is how to win, it isn't going to be easy.