The “year in review” pieces that proliferate old and new media alike around this time of year get tedious pretty fast. But because I’ve yet to see a good compilation of the major developments — and there were plenty of them — that affected desktop Linux in 2011, I couldn’t think of any better topic for my last post of the month. That may make me a hypocrite, but if you can forgive a personal flaw, keep reading for a look at how the Linux world has evolved in the last 365 days or so.

First, let’s acknowledge the obvious: 2011 was not the Year of the Linux Desktop. Nor was it the Year of the Linux Mobile device, a niche which in many senses has already eclipsed traditional PCs in importance.

2011 Milestones

But 2011 did see a lot of major changes to the experience of desktop Linux users. The most memorable — and influential — arguably included:

  • Ubuntu’s switch to Unity: Canonical’s decision to make its homegrown Unity desktop environment the only preinstalled interface choice in Ubuntu 11.10, released in October, continues to prove more than a little contentious. But like it or hate it, this new take on the way Linux users interact with their desktops has reconfigured the Linux experience in major ways, and possibly helped prepare Canonical’s foray into the world of touchscreen and mobile devices. Continued refinements to Unity in upcoming Ubuntu releases should, I hope, allay some of the ire that it has generated.
  • I can’t mention Unity without also taking note of GNOME 3, another desktop environment platform that — even though it didn’t become the default in Ubuntu — replaced GNOME 2 as the preinstalled interface for a variety of other distributions this year. Like Unity, GNOME 3 also has its lovers and haters, but it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Fortunately, the expanding library of GNOME Shell extensions promises to address some of the usability issues in early iterations of the interface and make it a true replacement for its august predecessor.
  • The summer saw the release of Linux 3.0. Practically speaking, the changes of the new kernel lineage constitute incremental upgrades more than fundamental breaks with the 2.6 family it replaces, a fact Linus Torvalds himself acknowledged when he declared “the real reason [for the change] is just that I can no longer comfortably count as high as 40.” All the same, people like version updates, and at least symbolically, Linux 3.0 was a major one.
  • The Ubuntu Software Center also reached some major milestones in 2011. The first for-sale application was introduced in the fall of 2010, but many more were added in 2011. Meanwhile, the recent implementation of support for PayPal makes the portal a more serious contender in the world of app stores. In many ways, I suspect, we’ll look back and conclude that 2011 was the year when the Software Center came into its own.
  • LibreOffice: Sponsored by the Open Document Foundation, this fork of OpenOffice.org had its first official release last January. As the open source world’s leading office productivity suite, LibreOffice is vital for making desktop Linux a viable platform for millions of people who have to do real work. It was also crucial for allaying the open source community’s fears after Oracle took control (through its acquisition of Sun) of OpenOffice in 2010, spawning concerns that the code would not remain open source or free. In the event, Oracle ended commercial development of OpenOffice last April, leaving LibreOffice as the new face of open source office productivity.
  • Ubuntu preinstallations on personal PCs also made some significant headlines in 2011: In June Asus announced a line of Ubuntu-powered netbooks, and in the fall computers with Ubuntu preinstalled were promised in retail stores in China and Portugal. This isn’t the first time Ubuntu PCs have been offered directly to consumers on a large scale — similar efforts several years ago via collaboration between Dell and Canonical ended with lackluster results — but the initiatives in this vein announced in 2011 proved that Canonical continues to believe that normal people will buy Ubuntu PCs if they are marketed and supported in the right way.

And so there you have it: the year in desktop Linux. I won’t pretend this list is exhaustive, as it’s certainly not. But from key new interfaces and applications to novel attempts for bringing Linux to the desktops — not to mention phones, TVs and tablets — of more non-geeks, the open source ecosystem witnessed plenty of notable changes in 2011, even if some of them were highly controversial among users. Here’s to continued healthy evolution for the Linux world in 2012.

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11 Comments on “The Year in Review: Desktop Linux Developments in 2011”

  1. Ike AhLoe Says:
    December 30th, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    You might want to edit the article if possible to change references to Gnome-Shell as “Gnome Shel”l rather than “Gnome 3″ (since, as i’m sure you already know, unity is a shell for gnome 3, just like gnome-shell is a shell for gnome 3).

  2. Jo-Erlend Schinstad Says:
    December 31st, 2011 at 11:42 am

    Ike AhLoe: I’ve pointed it out to him many times. He refuses to stop lying. I don’t know why, but it seems to be very important that his readers get a false impression of what GNU/Linux is.

    Most of the information from this site is just plain wrong. Nothing left to do than to delete the feed from the news reader and forget the whole site.

  3. Christopher Tozzi Says:
    December 31st, 2011 at 11:51 am

    I described GNOME 3 as a “desktop environment platform.” I had hoped that made the difference between GNOME 3 and GNOME Shell clear enough.

  4. Jo-Erlend Schinstad Says:
    December 31st, 2011 at 11:57 am

    «I can’t mention Unity without also taking note of GNOME 3, another desktop environment platform that — even though it didn’t become the default in Ubuntu — replaced GNOME 2 as the preinstalled interface for a variety of other distributions this year»

    Unity is not another desktop environment. It is Gnome. Gnome 3 _is_ the default in Ubuntu.

  5. Jack Says:
    December 31st, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    The nitpicking doesn’t really do Ubuntu any favours Schinstad. If anything it’s symptomatic for how Linux enthusiasts turns everything into annoyances even when it’s not called for.

    If that’s how you want readers to conclude based upon TVG’s generous and friendly coverage of Ubuntu – be my guest.

  6. Ike AhLoe Says:
    January 1st, 2012 at 10:57 pm

    @Jack – i was just trying to be polite and see if he might want to edit the article before people made a big deal of it. it doesn’t bother me because i know what he means. but i will say, in reaction to the author’s response, that i was not wrong in trying to help. the article does not correctly separate the concepts of gnome-shell and gnome 3. Gnome 3 was default in Ubuntu, and that’s not a little note. That’s an important detail.

  7. Jo-Erlend Schinstad Says:
    January 1st, 2012 at 11:06 pm

    Yes, and my response was harsh. If this had been the first time, or if he could claim that he didn’t know better, then I wouldn’t have reacted that way. Actually, if you want to, you can look at my response the first time. I explained the difference and asked him to rephrase it so that the readers wouldn’t be mislead. He responded to it. He understands the difference. That means he is actively trying to create confusion in the community. I don’t understand why he does this, unless it’s just for the clicks. Tell some lies, spread some rumors, links are shared and they make money.

    It’s sufficient that I’ve deleted the web feed. I’ve given it many enough tries. At some point, we just have to remember http://xkcd.com/386 and forget sites like these.

  8. Jack Says:
    January 2nd, 2012 at 5:30 am

    I can only repeat my self:

    Your nitpicking doesn’t really do Ubuntu any favours…

  9. Jo-Erlend Schinstad Says:
    January 2nd, 2012 at 5:36 am

    Really? Gnome currently has two official desktops that are installed by default. They are completely separate and have very little to do with one another, if anything at all. Still, they are both referred to as “the gnome 3 desktop”. That is similar to saying that “There is a bug in the latest version of the web browser”. It is very difficult for me to understand how you would consider it to be nitpicking to ask which browser the person was referring to.

    Do you like the Gnome 3 music player, for instance? I know there are two of them, but that doesn’t matter, because they’re both part of Gnome 3. Referring to them by names would be nitpicking, wouldn’t it?

  10. Jack Says:
    January 2nd, 2012 at 7:33 am

    If I wanted to read about Ubuntu at that level I would read about it elsewhere.

    When I read about Ubuntu at TVG, I’m interested in the industrial/philosophical aspects.

    Therefore it’s interesting to read about e.g Unity in that sense (will it affect marketshare in a positive og negative way).

    Thus: Nitpicking

  11. Robert Pogson Says:
    January 7th, 2012 at 6:08 pm

    I wonder in what way 2011 was not the year of Mobile Linux. 60% of smartphones sold in 2011 ran Android/Linux. About 1/3 of tablets also ran Android/Linux. Linux is running on a huge number of mobile devices. Far more ARMed devices were sold than x86 and Linux was on a lot of them. Of course, the numbers will only be higher in 2012 so perhaps TFA is looking for the peak.

    On the desktop, GNU/Linux is doing quite well with 100% per annum growth rate according to NetApplications. It’s out there far more than people see. Brazil is rolling out 500K desktops in schools. Dell is selling them in 200 stores in China. BRIC countries are actively promoting it.

    One would have to be very cynical to believe the world puts this much effort into GNU/Linux if it were not happening.

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