I am a developer and I don't know what he's talking about. Sure Unity is a bit unpolished around the edges, but I barely use it. Most of the time of a developer is spent in shells and editors (and, occasionally, a browser). All I see of it is when I have to launch something and, quite frankly, hitting the windows key and typing is much faster than menueing around.

Of course 2012 won't be the year of the Linux desktop and he nails it when he says we really don't want it. Give me power and stability. Give me power-user-friendliness, not grandma-friendliness.