Kubernetes is growing rapidly with over 5,000 commits in the 1.2 release and 50% more contributors. The 1.2 release focuses on getting started quicker and getting big faster with a new UI, improved scaling, and simplified deployments. Key features in 1.2 include the deployment API for automated application updates, configmaps for late-binding configuration, and daemonsets to ensure a pod runs on each node. Version 1.3 is planned for the coming weeks with additional features to support legacy applications, federated clusters, auto-scaling, and more.