It’s been a rather interesting year for Linux, with just enough ups and downs to keep us on our toes.  And, being as it is the heart of December, I figured now is a good time to scour through the Linux Action Shows of the past year and find, what I consider to be, the top moments from 2008.

These are not simply “Project X releases version 2.3.1″ type moments.  I’m talking real defining moments here.  Moments that have a broad impact on all of Linux-dom (and beyond).

So.  Without further ado (and in no particular order), here we go!

Amazon releases the Kindle

That’s right.  The Kindle.  Amazon’s eBook reader.  Sure, there have been several eBook reading devices before, but this one really hit the mainstream.

A Linux-powered device with an lifetime wireless data service (that you never need to pay for after you purchase the device)… and backed by the mighty force that is Amazon.com.

This is a win for book lovers and a win for the public perception of Linux.

Redhat and Ubuntu not optimistic on Desktop Linux

Okay, this isn’t the most up-beat moment.

The year kicked off with Redhat announcing that they have no plans to produce a consumer desktop Linux system.  This, of course, is less than inspiring.  But one company not being interested in the consumer desktop market isn’t a big deal, right?

Then, in the fall, Canonical’s (the company behind Ubuntu) head, Mark Shuttleworth, says “I don’t think it will possible to make a lot of money, or maybe any money, selling the desktop” and announces that they will not likely be profitable for several years.

While both companies continue to invest into projects that directly benefit desktop Linux as a whole… these sorts of announcements don’t do a great deal to raise the confidence level of those looking to move to Linux for their desktops (either in the home or office).

Adobe gives Linux some love

The year starts out with Adobe bringing AIR to Linux.  (For those unfamiliar: AIR is Adobe’s solution for developers to create desktop applications using their Flash and Flex toolsets.)  Sure, it was just an “alpha” release.  But it worked.  And was a good step.

Then comes Flash 10.  With a simultaneous release for all of the major platforms.  Linux included.  For once Linux is on par with Windows and OS X when it comes to Flash.  That was a good feeling.

Then, in November, Adobe releases the first alpha version of a 64 bit Flash plugin.  This is something that has been requests by folks on the other platforms for a long time now.  And Linux gets it.  First.

Linux users and Adobe have had a somewhat rocky relationship.  But Adobe has, this year, made great strides to show their support for our favorite desktop.

KDE 4

The year kicked off with the release of KDE 4.0.  It was one of the biggest changes to desktop Linux in years.  It was new.  It was different.  It had all sorts of new technologies.  And, boy, was it buggy!

But, luckily for us, the KDE team kept at it.  And KDE 4.1 and (soon) KDE 4.2 fixed up many of those bugs and made the system even cooler.

After years of, at least perceived, stagnation in the two major desktop environments (Gnome and KDE) the massive change that is KDE4 was a breath of fresh air.

Acquisitions

A lot of companies got gobbled up this year.  Here’s just a few that I felt were significant:

Sun buys Innotek, makers of VirtualBox.

Sun buys MySQL, makers of… MySQL.

Nokia buys Trolltech, makers of QT (the toolkit powering KDE).

I’ll leave it to you to decide if these are good or bad.  Either way these are going to have an impact on us in the years to come.

OpenOffice 3.0

OpenOffice (and, yes, I know there’s a “.org” at the end of that name… I just think saying “OpenOffice.org” for the name of an application sounds silly) is one of those key applications.  Without it, convincing many offices and home users to switch to Linux would be next to impossible.

And the 3.0 release is a definitely helpful.  It has plenty of new features (updated look and feel, support for bigger spreadsheets, etc.)… but the big one is: support for the latest Microsoft Office file formats.  Many don’t want to admit it, but without support for MS Office files… Linux is up a creek on the desktop.  Luckily we’ve got OpenOffice.

Mono 2.0 & MonoDevelop 1.0

Mono (a free implementation of Microsoft’s .Net) is one of the most controversial projects in the Linux world.  And, whether one likes it or not, it is becoming incredibly important as more and more applications on the Gnome desktop (Tomboy and F-Spot jump to mind) are written with Mono.

And, with the 2.0 release bringing support for major portions of .Net 2.0, this is a fairly big moment.  One where bringing many Windows applications to Linux is becoming much easier.

Add to that the 1.0 release (and soon the 2.0) of MonoDevelop earlier this year, making Mono development much easier (one does need a good IDE after all!), Mono is just going to get more important.

LugRadio closes up.  LAS ends long format.

Two things have happened this year that is more about the community and advocacy than the Linux Desktop itself: LugRadio closed up for good, and the Linux Action Show ended it’s long format show.

Sure, these are just podcasts.  And, sure, these shows going away doesn’t change everything.  (And, heck, Linux Action Show has just morphed into something new anyway.)

But these two shows have been a staple of many Linux users for the last few years.  And their absence will be noticeable as the new year starts.

First Android phone ships

Google’s Android, built on Linux, has been highly anticipated.  It is the phone OS that so many of us have been waiting for.

And, this fall, the first Android powered phone shipped: The HTC G1.

How Android and Android powered phones will do in 2009 is a big unknown.  But to have a viable, Linux-powered, contender to the iPhone juggernaut… well that’s a big thing.

All in all a rather exciting year!

Disagree with any of the items in my list?  Did I miss anything that should be here?  Let me know in the comments!