Reality Check: Open Source Milestones in 2010

It may be a cliché, but 2010 wouldn’t feel complete without compiling a list of the most memorable happenings in the open-source channel over the last 12 months.  So, without further ado, read on for a recap of the events that made the greatest ripples in the free-software world since January 2010…

First, though, let’s observe what didn’t happen in 2010.  Above all, it was not the Year of the Linux Desktop.  On the contrary, it felt much more like the Year of the Linux-based Mobile Phone (Whose Users Have No Idea They’re Running Linux), not to mention the Year of Chrome OS.

But Linux’s unsurprising failure to take over the workstations of the world aside, a number of important events did occur, including:

1. HTML5:  As I wrote recently, HTML5 has as of yet failed to revolutionize the Web in the way some of us expected last January.  Nonetheless, the protocol witnessed important advancements this year, with most major video sites implementing support for HTML5 video early in 2010.  In addition, the introduction in May of the open-source WebM codec helped erase important technical and legal hurdles hindering the adoption of HTML5 video.
2. Oracle vs. LibreOffice:  Oracle’s acquisition of the OpenOffice.org suite resulted in a momentous split among developers behind the world’s most popular open-source office suite, with many forking their work into LibreOffice in September.  The full repercussions of this break have yet to be seen, but expect it to cause a stir in 2011 when popular Linux distributions have to decide which office suite to ship in their new releases.
3. btrfs:  It may not have been the most exciting story of 2010, but the advancements made to the btrfs file system over the last year will likely have major implications down the road.  This is particularly true in the server world, where btrfs will allow to compete on a more even keel with Sun’s ZFS file system.  Some of btrfs’s features, like instant snapshots, however, could prove important on the Linux desktop as well.
4. Unity:  Canonical caused a major stir this fall when it announced that it aims to ship the next release of Ubuntu desktop edition with the Unity desktop environment, instead of the GNOME interface which a majority of Linux users have known and loved for years.  While GNOME developers felt slighted by Canonical’s decision, it left the rest of us wondering whether Ubuntu developers will be able to pull off their ambitious Unity plans, which we can expect to be at the center of Ubuntu news in the coming year.
5. Ubuntu to adopt Wayland:  As if the Unity announcement wasn’t bold enough, Canonical representatives followed it closely with news that they plan to abandon the venerable X.org server in favor of Wayland.  In principle, this change shouldn’t affect end-users much.  For Linux developers and other inhabitants of the open-source ecosystem, however, it could mean major shifts in the way code is written and backends behave.  But as with Unity, it remains to be seen whether Canonical’s Wayland initiative will proceed as smoothly as the company hopes.

What do these happenings say about the direction of the open-source channel going forward?  For one, they suggest that, although an important part of free software’s future undoubtedly lies in phones and other non-traditional devices (like those that will run ChromeOS), development remains active and innovative on the desktop and server fronts as well.  Don’t write these off yet.

The controversy surrounding HTML5 video codecs and the forking of OpenOffice, meanwhile, highlight the political and technical conflicts, both within and without the open-source ecosystem, that can hinder the development of open-source software.  But since disagreement is part and parcel of the open-source ethos, this trend is not likely to disappear anytime soon.

What we can expect, however, is plenty of excitement in 2011, as technologies like btrfs reach full maturity and a radically new face emerges for Ubuntu.  Stay tuned.

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