@UKPhil I'm not that put off by Apple because it doesn't "pretend" to be our friend in the way Google does. You know when you buy an iPhone (and you DO buy an iPhone as we all know) that you're paying for the privilege of the best mobile OS there is - Android is particularly weak because it's so fragmented and now we have a bunch of alternative "Androids" too.
It's not that I trust Apple per se, but I trust someone who is rude to me up front rather than someone who cuddles me while he's picking my (digital) pocket. Google defines evil more to me than even Microsoft ever did... and I've been out of the business almost as long as I was a part of it. Google pretends to even be a friend of open source (Summer of Code for example) but it does nothing that doesn't directly benefit Google in the long term; and that includes letting employees develop their own products.
It's hard to list all the things that Google takes advantage of - I know of some via the FSF and others just by watching my network traffic.
It's no surprise that Ubuntu Touch never really got a foothold as it doesn't have a killer app. It's not just the app ecosystem - because let's be honest - 90%+ of those are either utterly banal or just copies of each other. Hard to imagine what the killer app could be - and that, in and of itself has to be a problem. Google (what them again!) is well known for pilfering other people's ideas: Android itself was pinched from Blackberry at first and later from Apple.
So, I'll be promoting Ubports proudly and laughing at those who thought I was crazy all those years ago.
