For those curious, it's a continuation from where Nokia left with their Linux efforts, that's the roots in a nutshell. They did ship a smartphone with their own hardware in 2013. I still have it in my drawer.
Definitely ambitious, and an achievement, for a small company tackle OS, hardware, dev experience, everything.
I had a Nokia N9, their second attempt at Meego/Maemo, to this date it's the weirdest consumer device I've ever owned. The device shipped with a front camera but it was not accessible through any default app. The closest I got to it working was a mirror app someone made in a Hackathon.
Issues aside it was a beautifully designed device, you could see real innovation. Unfortunately Nokia killed it before it even shipped.
I had a Blackberry Z10 after the N9. Even though they were very different in their goals, it felt very much like a spiritual successor. BB OS10 dying as soon as it did really hits me to this date.
Definitely ambitious, and an achievement, for a small company tackle OS, hardware, dev experience, everything.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolla_%28smartphone%29