Although not perfect, this really shows the value in the name "GNU/Linux" for the desktop distros and such vs "Android/Linux"
Anyway, Ubuntu phone may not make it (seems unlikely), but it has more of a shot given the death of Firefox OS, not less. Ubuntu phone now has less competition in the alternative-mobile space.
I don't really agree. For desktop users, the DE matters a lot more than who made `cp`. For server users, the distro matters more because of the particular weirdness of each.
Fortunately, we have the nearly universally understood "Linux" instead, and weird specializations like Android can be called something else.
I also happen to think distinctions such as Debian/kFreeBSD (a Debian distribution based around the FreeBSD kernel, as opposed to (just) the regular FreeBSD user-land) are informative.
I'm not sure what one should/would call a Linux distribution with an alternative (non-GNU) libc that relied on a non-GNU compiler chain... Probably "brandname"/Linux or "function"/Linux (eg: Linux Router Project or something)...
I do like that attempt, though. "Well, they used a license that GNU wrote, so GNU should get top billing!" Do you want to talk about how well Apache/Dropwizard and PostgreSQL/PostgreSQL work with Apache/Kotlin on GNU/OpenJDK8?
Citation?
A constantly repeated quote from Linus is precisely: "Making Linux GPL'd was definitely the best thing I ever did." from a 1997 interview according to https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds
I've never heard Torvalds say anything regretful about using GPL. When I heard him in person just last year, he clarified his dislike of GPLv3 while emphasizing his preference and like of GPLv2.
And anyway, I didn't say anything about "top billing". The fact is, Linux itself is, admittedly, absurd billing for Linus given that he is the leader of the kernel project but is among thousands of people who make it happen. GNU is not a term that credits Richard Stallman. GNU is a community project with a particular political aim. And my point all along was just about some practical way to differentiate Android from the other primary Linux-based systems, and "GNU/Linux" is a way to do that.
Finally, many of those patches are unlikely to make it upstream anytime soon, as they are usually controversial.
Please don't spread these falsehoods.
Ubuntu phone was a glimmer of hope for me, a very faint glimmer, but it was something.
I remember people saying the compact disc was dead. History makes fools of many.
Btw, when it's Canonical going to announce that they will stop developing Ubuntu Phone? The writing has been in the wall for months and with Mozilla's recent announcement I believe it's just a matter of time. I think the vast majority of the mobile OS market has just moved on and is pretty ok with the two most popular OS options.
I kind of feel sorry for Ubuntu[1] and Linux[2] in general, they never had a firm foot in the desktop (market share-wise) and then this tectonic shift happens where everything goes mobile, a market where they aren't even a player, and to add insult to injury people stop caring enough about the desktop to even consider changing their OS to Linux in the first place.
1. I say this as a long time Linux user.
2. I know android is a modified version of Linux but here I use it as it has been traditionally understood in the desktop space.