Microsoft *is* apparently building .Net closer in to the OS with Windows 8 - this was the vision for Longhorn (out of it we got much of what makes .Net 3+ awesome today) - but with Jupiter, this is apparently becoming a reality. - the announcement will be at http://buildwindows.com/
more info: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/06/windows-8-for-software-developers-the-longhorn-dream-reborn.ars/2

Either way, .Net is still a very exciting ecosystem to be involved with, there's some mind blowing stuff going in and around it, and it is still an extremely viable development platform for a, quite frankly, huge percentage of the worlds top companies & financial institutions. Articles and questions like this always amaze me with their naivety of what is happening in the business world.