"One of these days someone will come up with the idea that replaces Unix."
I believe it will rather build atop of it, maybe changing it slightly. Sort of like OOP & functional didn't replace structural/procedural programming - both paradigms still use procedures and both changed them slightly to suit their ways.
it is happening right now, right in front of our eyes. We've got hardware. We've got OS. The 2 building blocks. And now we add 3d component - hypervisor - in between and thus there is virtualization which is the foundation for the most fundamental change which is happening now (with "cloud" being just the most noticeable and the most marketable [today] facet of it)
I believe it will rather build atop of it, maybe changing it slightly. Sort of like OOP & functional didn't replace structural/procedural programming - both paradigms still use procedures and both changed them slightly to suit their ways.