zlacker

>>todsac+(OP)
I think this is the inevitable outcome of any movement of Linux to the mainstream (Purism has done something similar). As Martijn said in the article, PinePhone devices were operable with 25 different projects. That's 25 different variations of Linux fighting over market share. As Pine enters a growth phase for their business, the consequences of this are going to manifest as paralysis.

Improvements and advancements would stagnate due to the 25x duplicated effort, and resources would be lost in keeping those projects happy. Also, any potential user looking to switch would be deluged with options, which is what crippled desktop Linux.

While I do not understand enough about Pine to know why they specifically made the business decision to gut their dev community and go with Manjaro Linux, my guess would be something along the lines of Manjaro's widespread dominance as a top Linux distro backed by a powerful foundation. Pine is pivoting to what they have decided is their future: a full-stack hardware to software open source offering that in their eyes would have a better shot at cracking open the phone market.

They probably were aware of the consequences, but have bet on making it big and creating a new, streamlined ecosystem after extinguishing this one. It remains to be seen if they will succeed.

>>nextha+Vb1
As someone who works for Purism on the Librem 5, I have to say that I never had the impression of stagnation due to duplicated effort. Quite the opposite - we benefited a lot from work done on projects like postmarketOS, Mobian or Plasma Mobile, and I'm pretty sure others are benefiting from Purism's work just as well. A lot of stuff is interconnected and the push to mainline as much stuff as possible was certainly worth it long-term, as we can clearly see its fruits in our everyday work now.