Has Linux lost the desktop forever?

The desktop computer was designed as a machine to create and manipulate content. The fact that it could also reproduce pre-existing entertainment material was secondary to its purpose, but that is what caused a great many private users to buy one. As soon as a more dedicated entertainment device became available, there went the private market for desktops.

Now only serious people use desktops.

Nonsense. I notice you said "create". What can one create on a "dedicated entertainment" device? No one is creating production drawings or music or CGI or spreadsheets or anything else of any complexity on a cellphone or tablet. Hollywood is not making movie graphics on laptops. The corporations that design and produce cellphones and tablets and MP3 players are not using laptops to design circuit boards and cases and the production lines to build them. Financial institutions are not doing their primary acctg on laptops. This whole the-desktop-is-going-away subject is so preposterous as to be a waste of time arguing. So I'll not. ;)

@notbob: Yes, that is just what I said.

Define serious, who is serious, how serious, etc.

I always say mobile mini Devices are supplemental to desktops. Sent from a mall via my Galaxy.

Yes, it's true. Linux has lost the desktop forever.

Effective January 4, 2014, everyone has to go back to using Windows.

Sorry.

I think you're right, albinard. It's two different markets, and the powerful general-purpose desktop doesn't meet the needs of people who want entertainment and easy social stuff. It's overkill. Those are the ones who drive us crazy wanting help because all they want is something dead-simple they can operate by poking with a stick. And voila! Behold smartphones and dedicated entertainment devices like set-top boxes and Kindle. Android has done us a huge favor-- I know I'm spending a lot less time fending off help requests from friends.

There is *some* drop in the desktop market. What most people don't seem to realise is that the desktop *proportion* is rapidly decreasing because of the rapid expansion of alternatives.

Lots of people still need desktops but the explosion of computing is in areas other than the desktop. There will be a desktop market for the foreseeable future. It's just that a lot more people have a lot more devices and in the main they are not desktops.