The 2008 Linux and free software timeline

Here is LWN's eleventh annual timeline of significant events in the Linux and free software world for the year.

As always, 2008 proved to be an interesting year, with great progress in useful software that made our systems better. Of course, there were some of the usual conflicts—patent woes, project politics, and arguments over freedom—but overall, the pace of free software progress stayed on its upwardly increasing trend. 2008 was a year that saw the end of SCO—or not—the rise of Linux-based "netbooks", multiple excellent distribution releases, more phones and embedded devices based on Linux, as well as major releases of software we will be using for years (X.org, Python, KDE, ...). We look forward to seeing what 2009—and beyond!—will bring.

This is version 0.85 of the 2008 timeline. There are certainly errors and omissions; if you find any, please send them to timeline@lwn.net rather than posting them as comments.

For previous years' timelines, head over to our timeline index.