Think he's got it a little bit backwards, as win8/Metro is going after *nix in the mobile market, where Android outsells the Apple OS.
On the desktop unless someone does what Google did for or in the mobile market, packaging *nix so the user doesn't have to deal with it -- only the apps that are installed -- it's not gonna happen, *nix isn't going to be popular on the desktop. Google *may* come through in the future, now that the landscape's changing, but too many variables for it to be more than idle speculation.
Now maybe up to ~8 years ago I would have been in 100% agreement with the ZDNet author, that *nix couldn't make it on the desktop because good hardware drivers were Windows only, 'cause PC users tended to be more in the minority, by necessity more of a nerd or geek. That's changed, a Lot. WR wouldn't be happy running *nix, because not only couldn't he get all of his games, he couldn't get the most out of his graphics hardware. But the newer, more casual user is more likely to get their apps & games from an app store, e.g. the Angry Birds phenomena, & more likely to use a lower powered PC/laptop with integrated graphics & sound. Rather than a slew of ATI & Nvidia graphics variants, you've got 2, one each made by AMD & Intel. You've also got increasingly faster, more powerful mobile CPUs, that could become rivals to the lower end products from AMD & Intel. A version of Android [Chrome?] could work, & increase sales at Google's app store too.
As far as win8 itself goes, I don't see it initially making a huge difference to PC/laptop users, at least with the PCs/laptops sold nowadays. It's a slightly faster win7 without the extras, e.g. no Aero, with better memory & disk mgmt. If you heavily rely on desktop Gadgets you *might* use Metro instead, but otherwise power users won't see or use it -- there's already several Start Menu replacements or use Jump Lists or one of the desktop docks. I also expect makers like Dell & HP will add their own solutions. I predict those folks who suffered almost unendurable angst waiting for Angry Birds to be ported to Windows will, OTOH tend to like Metro just fine. The biggest change brought about by win8 *may* be Google striking back, &/or Facebook moving to enter the fray -- they've got plenty of cash to buy coders/developers.
