It pretty much is - depending on how locked down the system is.

For example, you can install Ubuntu on (some) Android devices - http://www.ubuntu.com/phone/install

It was possible to install Android on Nokia's Maemo phones - http://shkspr.mobi/blog/2009/05/nitdroid-installing-android-...

It depends on how open the handset is to having its firmware replaced.

What this article is talking about is having phones "blessed" by Google so they can include G* services (mail, maps, play, etc).

It is possible. For example Ubuntu is installable on some phones.

It is like Linux 15 years ago, there are a few good drivers and one has to check compatibility charts.

Other problem is hardware detection. OS on PC can detect what hardware is installed. On mobile you need hardware map. There is no way to have universal installer for all mobile phones.

Why do you need the map, except - it was the way it has always been done in mobile?

There is no plug-and-play, you need to know if the hardware is there or not. If you poke something and you are on the wrong board, if could free/reboot/brick/whatever.

It is an ARM thing. The good news is, that there is a map and a single kernel can run on multiple boards. It is a recent development, before that, you needed a separately built kernel.

Can you make a phonecall from Ubuntu?

According to official sources (http://www.ubuntu.com/phone/install), the Ubuntu Phone beta has the following capabilities:

"Connection to the GSM network on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4" "Phone calls and SMS on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4"

You can download source code and blobs for some Sony phones. Something things work, some require closed source blobs. Some things don't work because the driver providers don't allow Sony to redistribute them separately.

Edit: info http://developer.sonymobile.com/knowledge-base/open-source/a...

Android itself can be installed without the Google suite otherwise known as GApps. Actually most roms don't include GApps for this reason. Look at any AOSP based rom. Its just they want access to the Google suite and this requires OHA http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/ requirements.

Blue Screen of Death was often caused by shoddily written drivers.

People don't want their phone to BSoD.

The Android devices I've had the displeasure of using (Galaxy S2, Nexus 4) reboot/crash/hang on a more regular basis than any Windows computer I've used in the last ~10 years. I used WebOS devices for a while before switching to Android, and I don't remember the last time either of those crashed or needed to be power-cycled. My iPhone 1 was an unreliable piece of garbage, though, so I guess I can't specifically shit on Android here.

Anyway though, 'people don't want their phone to BSoD' seems a rather unsupportable statement: modern 'big seller' Android phones suffer from surprisingly poor quality control, especially if you install the OS updates on a regular basis. If they're not introducing some sort of hang/crash bug, they're breaking one or two of the built in applications. I remember one of the recent Nexus 4 OTA updates broke one of the built-in preferences panels under Settings - how do you ship an OS release without testing that?

Ultimately cool new features and apps are more compelling to people than actual stability, judging by how many of my smartphone-owner friends complain about phone crashes and hangs. They're still using those phones and buying the latest models...

Same here. Two different top-of-the-line Verizon/Motorola phones, both have an average uptime of a few days. Generally due to a crash, but sometimes because performance is so terrible I have to reboot it. And thanks to the carrier's lockdown (for stability, they'll surely claim), I can't actually debug any of the performance issues.

If anybody knows of an Android phone that actually works reliably out of the box, I'd be excited to hear about it.

My MotoX has never crashed/rebooted on me.

Thanks. Mine is being delivered this afternoon; I got the developer edition so that I can root it without fear.

The Google apps are significantly better at present. What is needed is a community effort to work on one set of replacements that work well, rather than the fragmented alternatives.

Indeed and this set could be consolidated around an ownCloud API. I would even go further make them isolated from google's API by default with options to enable tight integration with the platform, if you wish. That is for instance, an address book that does not share your contacts and a calendar app that might share it's event if you explicitly say so, an A-GPS that doesn't report automatically your position to Google ...