Anyway: consumer OSes are historically cheap, and cannot be easily converted into subscriptions. So the market is low-margin, and shrinking (due to both phones and clouds). I suspect it is already unprofitable for Microsoft. So they need to exit; while exiting, ideally, sell people something else.

Which is what we observe.

The article advises them to “have a boring year” to “stop the slide” to stay dominant in a market they should have left years ago.

Anyway; Tailscale is not your only network. If you’re on a laptop, you need to be able to log onto rando wifi networks. If you’re at home, you need to be mindful of your smart fridge going rogue. You need to run a firewall. Tailscale adds a separate, Tailscale-specific, firewall with centralized management. Now you have two firewalls.

It was fine for non-technical users since at least early GNOME 2, if you're ready to help them set up and maintain. Semi-technical users (Windows power users, gamers, &c — people who like to install and configure things, but fear the deep dark abyss of the terminal) were and remain more problematic.

Unity days were the nadir of linux desktop ux — it was when Gnome 2 was gone, and 3 not yet there. Still better than contemporaneous Windows 8, though.

I don't know what "prime time" means here.

edit: apart from, you know. Applications and drivers for random hardware.

There is indeed a lot of hardware progress, including 3D printing, but also a general shift to laptops, need to sync with phones, much better connectivity, sufficient performance for good video, and high-density screens. Looking at the software I use vs what I used ~2005, most positive changes are due to that.