I assume that the author does not play games.
I don't see a touchpad, or something touchable input devices can be better than a mouse, say, when you are playing SC or WarIII. how can you select single unit then move it quickly use finger or stick?
The mouse might become an exclusive gaming device – like today’s gamepads.
It actually is for me. I rarely play games but from time to time I do and on those rare occasions I dust of my mouse. (Sometimes I’m too lazy to get the mouse and play a few minutes of Minecraft with the trackpad.)
I can’t imagine using that Windows UI with a mouse. It seems clumsy. You need a touchscreen or a large trackpad with gestures. I was just fooling around with Lion which is a lot less radical than Windows 8 but it was still obvious that you need a trackpad with gestures. (I have a 2007 MacBook Pro which doesn’t support any gestures except for two-finger scrolling. It’s working ok but it’s obvious that gestures would make the experience so much nicer.)
Calling the mouse “dead” might be hyperbole but if the mouse indeed becomes this decade’s gamepad or trackball I would argue that the hyperbole is justified.
