Free is too expensive (Economist)

Exactly - if the Linux community doesn't carefully analyse the arguments made by the Economist article, and think out how to prevent these problems, there is no chance for desktop Linux.

Even using the term desktop Linux is misleading - since there is no stable core API across distros and versions, there is really a huge proliferation of desktop Linux variants. That's great for adapting to unique user requirements, but only a fraction of this (perhaps Ubuntu) can support a third party application market.

The Humble Indie Bundle has been at the forefront of encouraging indie game developers to support Linux, and they have made some significant revenue out of Linux, but this is going to be limited by the installation hassles - I can't even get some Humble games installed on Linux, so I just reboot into Windows. The point is to play the games not to be a Linux administrator...