> Remember when Microsoft sued OpenOffice for building a functional free competitor? Or when Sun sued Python?
They never did. They never did.
Both companies did some evil things in the 90s and 00s (Microsoft arguably much worse than Sun) but not what you described here. There were some worries from words that Microsoft might sue OpenOffice users. Sun never sued "Python" (you cannot sue a programming language, for starters).
..and why specifically Ubuntu Touch? There are other FOSS options available. Ubuntu Touch never took off, and is now a community project. Even Windows Phone failed. I put my money on Sailfish OS as platform #3 (if we ignore KaiOS) which is partly FOSS. Why SFOS? Because it will get adoption in non-Western markets such as Russia and India. Countries don't want to be dependent on US proprietary code because it isn't auditable, and these companies in the end do what the US government asks or demands them to do. I'm also curious what is going to happen with the Chinese Android fork led by Huawei.
Sailfish is definitely my next phone OS, and even though walking away from Google / Apple tentacles is one incentive, by far the biggest for me is that it runs Linux, complete with terminal etc. Oh the joy of just being able to grep, rsync, ssh...
I always felt like that wasn't a lot to ask, but evidently, I couldn't be further away from the truth.
I haven't looked much into it yet, but I really, really like what they do with Pinebooks. Heard only good things about them. Looking at the announced specs[0], the phone is very promising to me.
I'll probably wait for a general release (apparently the "Brave Heart" edition is for devs and very-early adopters). It's definitely on my radar.
They never did. They never did.
Both companies did some evil things in the 90s and 00s (Microsoft arguably much worse than Sun) but not what you described here. There were some worries from words that Microsoft might sue OpenOffice users. Sun never sued "Python" (you cannot sue a programming language, for starters).
..and why specifically Ubuntu Touch? There are other FOSS options available. Ubuntu Touch never took off, and is now a community project. Even Windows Phone failed. I put my money on Sailfish OS as platform #3 (if we ignore KaiOS) which is partly FOSS. Why SFOS? Because it will get adoption in non-Western markets such as Russia and India. Countries don't want to be dependent on US proprietary code because it isn't auditable, and these companies in the end do what the US government asks or demands them to do. I'm also curious what is going to happen with the Chinese Android fork led by Huawei.