2012 Linux Retrospectives Highlight a Remarkable Year

It's that time of year, when media outlets and blogs everywhere round up the biggest events of 2012. In the world of open source, this year gave rise to many milestones. Here are some of the better look backs at 2012's Linux milestones, including a new video from The Linux Foundation on the heights Linux hit in 2012.

Linux Rising. As The Linux Foundation's Amanda McPherson notes, this was the year that Red Hat achieved $1 billion in revenues, and Android adoption outpaced the iPhone. You can watch The Linux Foundation's "What a Year for Linux" video here. 

Top Linux Trends. Datamation has a good look back at some of the top trends in Linux for 2012. These included the rise of crowdsourcing, diversity in desktop environments, Ubuntu's "Corporation vs. Community" schizophrenia, and interfaces that adjusted for multiple device form factors.

Open Source Channel Successes. The VAR Guy specializes in watching action in market channels, and he has an exhaustive inventory of how Linux and open source affected markets. He notes the automotive industry's increasing interest in Linux and Android, Linux-based game platforms, the rise of Chromebooks, and Dell's growing interest in Ubuntu.

Emerging Distros. LinuxInsider provides an interesting look back at rising stars among Linux distros, including results from a reader poll, and "best distro" votes from around the web. Of course, there is discussion of Mint vs. Ubuntu, but there is more to dig into as well.

OStatic will produce several open source retrospectives for 2012 over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.