The "real world" is long term results. Yes, this is a joke amount of money for building an OS if the goal is conquering desktops and holding the territory. It is obvious to everyone the "Year of the Linux Desktop" attitude with only $10M in funding isn't going to end the way they want.
So the "real world" is that Linux failed on the desktop and it is not worth trying, meaning that raising $10M to do this a joke?
Would you say the same thing if another distro raised that amount of money? Or is it because DHH is the one doing it.
This sort of thinking is why Linux on the Desktop worked for Windows, instead of it becoming mainstream with its own distro.