"We’re going to see things move more towards virtualizing the desktop as the network builds out, and centralizing back at the data center," says president of Sun Microsystems Federal, Bill Vass, according to the article.

Ultimately, how about the question "Will OSes become extinct?" The article contains a detailed analysis and quotes Donald Becker, founder and chief scientist of Scyld Software, "OSes will be with us for a long time." In other words, "Fat holds out." That's probably a welcome prediction to many folks.