I am also a bit weary of predicting the decline of local storage and apps for the home user. The correct headline of the article should be "Local desktops givin

I am also a bit weary of predicting the decline of local storage and apps for the home user. The correct headline of the article should be "Local desktops giving way to hosted desktops". Nearly all enterprise level corporations are either already using private cloud services (citrix style solutions) with thin clients or are doing a migration to them for exactly the advantages you listed. I think that what is for sure is that we will see this paradigm trickle down more and more throughout the workplace, with progressively smaller companies having deploying their own desktop visualization systems, with employees either using thin clients or bringing their personal laptops to work.