Well it’s been another wild week here in the Linux blogosphere, what with all the ruckus emanating out of the bordering Redmond territories. Much like what happened last fall when Windows 8 made its fanfare-filled debut, the launch of Office 2013 and 365 last Tuesday left more than a few Linux bloggers with a ringing in the ears that didn’t abate for days.

What a difference a day makes — or, in this particular case, eight months or so. Less than a year ago, retailer Barnes & Noble yanked an issue of Linux Format magazine from its U.S. shelves because of a cover story on the topic of “hacking.” “A complaint was made,” explained the announcement last May on Linux Format’s TuxRadar blog.

Munich’s multiyear migration to Linux has been nothing if not an ongoing saga over the past decade or so, beset as it has been by stops, starts, and various twists and turns. The story appeared to have a happy ending in November when Munich reported that using Linux had already saved it more than 10 million euros, but last week Microsoft spoke up with a different tale.

Ever since it became clear that GNOME 2 would have an ongoing future in the desktop Linux world after all, flowers have been blooming unseasonably early throughout the Linux blogosphere. It all started with the appearance of MATE and Cinnamon; then it was SolusOS. Since then, Fuduntu made its official debut, as did Consort,” SolusOS’s brand-new GNOME Classic fork.

However great the strides made by user-friendly distros such as Ubuntu and Mint in recent years, it seems fair to say that Linux has not yet enjoyed any sweeping successes on the desktop the way it has on the mobile side with Android. That, however, may be changing. Thanks once again to none other than Google, Linux is now appearing with increasing frequency in the PC lineups of hardware makers.

The dust is finally beginning to settle here in the Linux blogosphere following all the recent brouhaha emanating out of CES. The tents have been packed up, the jugglers have gone home, and bloggers can finally hear themselves think down at the blogosphere’s Broken Windows Lounge once again. Spirits are lifting across the land, in other words, and a few choice headlines have done nothing but help.

Given Ubuntu’s recent glitzy and fanfare-accompanied debut on the world’s mobile stage, it’s beginning to look like limelight and red carpets will increasingly be a part of FOSS’ future. You’ve come a long way, baby! And to think, we knew you back when! Now, what could be a more logical next step than an appearance on the silver screen?

The Linux community may not exactly be known for its glitzy launch events, but last week saw one the likes of which has rarely — if ever — been seen in these parts before. Splashier even than the blogosphere’s New Year’s Eve festivities, most agreed, the Ubuntu for phones announcement on Wednesday might well have been a Cupertino production, so loud were the trumpets and fanfare.

Well another holiday season has come and gone, leaving more than a few jangled nerves and expanded waistlines in its wake. Holiday pressures are bad enough by themselves, of course, but Canonical’s splashy and yet profoundly confusing Wednesday announcement so soon afterward hasn’t exactly helped.

Well, we’re in the final countdown now as 2012 draws to a close, so you’d think all would be quiet here in the Linux blogosphere as bloggers hunker down to recover from what’s been an exceptionally exhausting year. Linux Girl, for one, has been putting in extra hours on her favorite barstool down at the blogosphere’s Broken Windows Lounge in an effort to recover a bit of the sanity that slipped away in 2012.