0. In the end it doesn't matter who first implemented the idea. It's not about credit, it's about sales. Right now the smart phone-buying public wants an "app store" and Apple gave them one. Configuring repositories on their N900 is not what they wanted, which is my point. The poster was pointing to the existence of Ubuntu and Debian repositories to say that the Maemo has an equivalent to the iPhone app store, which it most certainly does not.

1. WP7 or Android. Everyone else is using Android and MS was offering customization and input that Google was not. Staying the course wasn't an option. So you're suggesting Android was the better choice?
2. Close enough to scratch. By the strictest definition then Linux From Scratch isn't really from scratch. Whatever they were doing, they were spending more than any other phone or phone OS maker and had less to show for it.
3. Intel's less a software firm than Nokia and again, it didn't make much difference even with there being a lot of Moblin underneath MeeGo. The point is Microsoft wrote WP7 from scratch and succeeded. Palm created webOS on a tiny fraction of the budget and employees. Google apparently has Android coders working in shifts 24/7 given the constant progress. Nokia had a huge R&D budget and a vast numbers of software engineers and couldn't make Moblin/MeeGo into a viable consumer-oriented OS in several years of trying. Throwing more money and time at MeeGo and pinning all the company's chances for success on a project that was over budget and behind schedule would be folly.

4. Qt isn't an ecosystem. It's a framework.

Thank goodness Mr. Elop came in and removed the NIH (Not Invented Here) culture. You left out an option, "Nokia erects a lifesize gold statue of Mr. Elop in the lobby of Nokia HQ and town is renamed Elopoo in his honor".

I can't see Mr. Elop being fired for doing exactly what the board wanted him to do, and no one can fault him for jumping off the burning platform, even if there are sharks below.