Folks, this thread is going in circles. How about I say this to end it?
I think the original question "Is the Volla Phone identical to the GS290" has been solved. Sorry to the OP for this thread getting so derailed...
To make it clear: Hallo Welt Systems sponsors the UBports Foundation. Money has exchanged hands so that we can continue to make the operating system. Hallo Welt sees this as part of their business interest for reasons that I can really only speculate on (it's one of those things I'm not directly involved in).
Of course I would prefer people purchase our partner's device. It makes it more likely that our partner will work with us in the future. Volla has worked with us, even going so far as to hire developers to work on Ubuntu Touch and train staff to support it. That is no small feat.
When people see that you can purchase a device that might run the same software for much cheaper than the partner's device, of course some will want to do that. Those people are free to try to do that through whatever means they see fit.
I'm not going to say "oh but think of the poor software developers." One or two people trying to save a buck by buying the GS290 and jumping through hoops to flash open source software onto it probably won't break the bank. If someone wants to do that, let them.
I also won't say that you should do it, because we don't test it. If something breaks, neither us nor Hallo Welt will help you fix it. Gigaset probably won't either. You definitely should not contact any of us with bugs you experience on the GS290 without having a Volla Phone to verify, I would find that rather rude. Whether a lack of support is a problem for you is up to you. It's your money and your time.
Please, understand that we don't need people fighting tooth and nail for the virtues of Ubuntu Touch, or that every user should donate to it, or protect it. Of course I think Ubuntu Touch is great, and that every user should donate to it if they can. It's in my best interest if you do. But we wouldn't continue working on it, licensing it under the licenses that we do, if we didn't understand the risks of that too. We're all adults here, and I'm pretty sure we can each figure out how much contribution to Ubuntu Touch is enough for us.
Do what you want with the software, within the bounds of the license. And continue letting us know when you think we've overstepped bounds or handled a situation poorly. It's that kind of feedback that keeps us righted.
To that end, I'll make it clear here: We won't artificially block the UBports Installer from installing software to an unsupported device. Even today, you can try installing the Nexus 5 image of Ubuntu Touch on an Xperia X. You shouldn't because it won't boot (the UBports Installer will probably hit an error before that even happens), but it's an option. That's what the "manually select device' option does. It's how people install the Pixel 3a image to the Pixel 3a XL, even though the two devices identify differently. We keep it there in case we mess up a device's codename mapping, or for people who are really sure they want to install the thing. It's the "yes, I'm really sure" button. And we'll probably keep it there for a long time.
I'm locking this thread now. If you're interested in discussing any of the points I've made here, please make a new one and tag me. I'll try to answer to the best of my ability.
(Edited to remove non-inclusive language)
