Didn't read the article.
The idea of online only software irritates me. Of course multiplayer games have to work this way. When blizzard and Ubisoft started requiring an active connection for single player games that was just going too far.
Can you imagine sitting at your computer, doing literally anything. The screen goes strait to blue with the windows shutting down screen saying, "Internet disrupted, please contact your provider for support".
I guess even a chromebook has some sort of offline apps and storage.