The phone almost nobody wants at a price nobody would be willing to pay... and HTC able to create the web/software infrastructure that Nokia couldn't... Sorry, I really can't see HTC going this route unless there's a sudden demand for phones that run Kismet. It certainly wouldn't be available in America... which carrier is going to subsidize a phone with complete user access to the code?

You're going to see MeeGo on the newest craze, tablets, where it makes more marketing sense. There's no scenario for now where desktop Linux comes to the phone. (Although as I recommended to someone else, pick up a Viliv N5 and put Linux on it and you're pretty close to an upgraded N900) Once the majority of cell phone users are using smart phones in a few years' time and mobile processors have improved in performance and power consumption to rival desktops, then you'll see a demand for a more serious cell phone OS. Of course, by that time Windows and probably OS X will be ported to ARM....