I actually don't read many blogs directly. One of the few that I read often is my buddy Matt Asay's (aka Fake Matt).
He's been pontificating for a while over there that the desktop is dead, and the only relevant operating system is the internet. And I guess my recent response caused him to clarify his positioning (while posing as a ghost writer).
My argument is that AJAX, while useful, doesn't provide a wholesale replacement for desktop applications. (Interestingly enough we switch positioning over email clients, me favoring gmail, him favoring fat clients (so they can sync to his handhelds)).
I'm a developer who uses the web a lot, but spend a lot of time scripting and debugging. When I'm using a computer at home I'm doing more multimedia type activities (video editing, image manipulation) that can't be replaced by a fancy web app. Matt's coming from a business side.
As Open Source Evangelist for Novell, he spends his time meeting with new startups (and thinking about how best to use open source). For him, the communication mechanisms are important. A lot of time thick clients just get in the way. That's fine with me if they go to the web (I'm all for wikis instead of word processors). And all the better for the googles, and linuxes (while worse for the apples and ms's).
So if the desktop is dying, then I'll mourn its passing the day I buy a laptop. (Not a web enabled cell phone). I don't think I can be productive without some number crunching power on my end.