Forget the article's focus on the PC. I think the real question they're reaching for is this: out of all the ways the Internet could have ended up, we arrived at this broken model for online services. The exploration is interesting, but in the end it seems like a cry for help or a call for action.
We need to make the jump from code based projects to service based projects which are done entirely for the public good and not for financial self-enrichment. In most cases, the basic mechanism which allows you to scale your own service is missing... unless you're willing to bill your customers up-front or help exploit them behind the scenes.
So here are the questions: Can we graduate from code based projects to service based projects? How do we contribute code and operate an online service for the public good, at scale, and without compromising our users in the process? Is it possible to make this an easily repeatable process? Is this a significant cure for much of the quiet exploitation behind many of today's "free" Internet services?