Linux won't rise to the occasion because there's no figurehead leading the rise. Linux's greatest strength and weakness is in its breadth of a community. But that's not how you traditionally attract a mainstream audience.

That's why Valve is the best chance here, and why I'm not too optimistic. Valve's incentives are to make its own walled garden, which in my eyes defies the idea of linux. But that seems to be the only thing that works these days.