> I didn't understand why it's so important for it to be Linux, as opposed to any other operating system that's as hackable/customizable.
I should apologize for my response then. I'd thought you were alluding to iOS, and thought that it was strange to bring that up when discussing configurable OS's.
I don't think it being Linux is too important for people. If somebody made a working FreeBSD for a phone and there was official support for that device, then people wouldn't be all "Well, it's not Linux". I don't think I've seen any interest from BSD maintainers to bring any form of it to phones though.
As it is now, the PinePhone is officially supported by Manjaro and that makes it the most obvious option. Also, all attempts thus far to bring open source to mobile has been some form of Linux, so it's natural that when people think "open source phone", it's probably going to be using Linux. PinePhone itself already has 18-ish different distros, including ports of Debian and Ubuntu, so it's certainly well on its way.
If I get a PinePhone then I will try to run NetBSD on it, the SoC is supported by all BSD variants.
I didn't understand why it's so important for it to be Linux, as opposed to any other operating system that's as hackable/customizable. So I wanted to know if I had missed something.