It’s been a landmark year for open source, and in so many different ways that even a casual survey of the year’s events will range far and wide. Here’s a quick rundown of what to me were the top five open source events of the year — not an exhaustive list, of course, but the things that best reflected how important and widely entrenched open source software (especially Linux) has become.

1. Microsoft and the Samba Team.
After a good deal of constant outside pressure, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has finally allowed the technical details of many of its proprietary protocols to be revealed, albeit in a controlled way. The most important thing about this agreement is that it allows open source programmers to avoid certain Microsoft patents that might have made them the target of future litigation. It’s a step toward ending Microsoft’s secretive Linux patent strategies once and for all.

2. The OLPC, the Eee PC, and the gPC.
No less than three personal-computing devices appeared this year, each in a slightly different niche, all of which ran a variety of Linux as their out-of-the-box operating system. The OLPC was significant enough by itself — both as an open-source event and as a way to bring computing to developing nations - but the Eee PC and gPC, marketed at many of us right here at home, were even bigger heralds for how much closer Linux is to being a household name. Which leads us to …

3. Dell shipping Ubuntu Linux with selected machines.
This was more than just Dell (Dell) adding Ubuntu as a pre-load option, but certifying that Ubuntu would work with its machines, too. As tentative as the whole thing was at first, it has since become a possible point of inspiration for other PC retailers (such asHP (NYSE: HP)). Whether or not Ubuntu will knock Windows out of the box is doubtful, but it at least means that much more choice — and competition.

I just quote only 3 stories. If you want to read the rest 2 stories, make sure you read it here at Informationweek.com.