The main reason there will never be a “year of Linux on the desktop” is that desktops became irrelevant before Microsoft became… whatever it is now.
I think it would be correct to say that present-day desktops are mature and stable and aren't rapidly changing because they fill a mature niche. Mobile does seem to have decimated the casual computing and much of the non-work-related computing niche, at least for non-technical people.
I wonder if there's an argument to be made that desktops should become more technical and power user oriented since that is now their niche.
Outside of browsers, not much work happens on desktops either...
But like, also an ad company with no QA? Like Google is somewhat evil I think, but they are intensely competent in a way that Microsoft is not.
Which makes the B2C ad stuff they shove into Windows all the more infuriating: it's a drop in the bucket relative to their other product verticals.