i thought telnet didnt exist anymore... you know like dinosaurs

That's kind of the point. A lot of people building shiny new computers seem to think the same.

In the real world, even in security systems, a simple reliable method to get the job done wins every time. Especially if it means I can fix the problem over a rough network connection, without needing to get on a plane, hire a lift platform, or worst of all fill out site safety paperwork

ssh has decades (and you can choose the port you want or even do reverse ssh), does your computer have a hard disk? then i guess you can install ssh.

Anyway if i dont remember wrong, rlogin was compatible, i guess you have already checked, but i tell you just in case...

Typically the devices I deal with would have embedded linux, the only (documented) way to install anything would be to telnet in first!
But even if it had multiple quad core Xeon and all the disk space in the world, I wouldn't be installing non-standard stuff on client hardware without a *very* good reason!

This is all a bit off the point though - telnet is in widespread use in a lot of low power / low end devices and for me the important bit about a linux based phone is not that it's linux or that some portion of it is open source, it's that it should be more useful than a regular consumer device. It seems a shame that because of the architecture I can't install typical linux tools without breaking the update process in some vaguely specified way that I don't understand well enough to risk.

For all the advantage the typical owners sees at the moment from a Ubuntu Touch device, they might as well just use an Android device with a custom colour scheme on the home screen

then you should either try a jave telnet which may work in your ubuntu or to compile one:
http://sourceforge.net/directory/ter...lnet/os:linux/

I also deal with embedded Linux and other *nix devices that need telnet to get to certain parts of it. I expect they will eventually go extinct but it will take a while.
I've also played with telnet to certain ports to play with things for example perhaps you've telnet to a mail server and done test commands there. I rarely do that kind of thing these days though but the devices I do regularly

So seems people would not be happy with ubuntu as a sailfish replacement. I have yet to play with one, I was just annoyed at their multitasking and wasn't so pleased with the Mir mess. Too bad about the user experience as well.

Can an Ubuntu phone run gtk apps?

I'm running Ubuntu on a Nexus 4 and could already play with both, the MX4 and Aquaris E5. While I haven't had a look yet at OTA 8, the Ubuntu software is far away compared to the maturity and functionality of Sailfish OS. I'm not saying this to offend Ubuntu, cause I like their software a lot and I'm even one of those who is more or less ok with Unity on the desktop .

Sailfish OS is my daily driver and I there's no way Ubuntu phone could replace this yet (or I'd miss a lot of stuff). SFOS' app catalogue is huge compared to Ubuntu's (and I don't count those rather useless web-apps the Ubuntu store is filled up with). Additionally the system doesn't seem to run as fast and polished as SFOS 2.0.
It's up to personal tastes whether one likes the Ubuntu UI, I don't see a problem with it, but prefer the SFOS one a lot - at least on a smartphone sized screen.

It seems though, Canonical doesn't have a huge pressure. They don't need to deal with home-made hardware (and the MX4 as well as E5 are quiet nice) and also offer great support for the Nexus 4 (and 7, 10 I think). While Ubuntu phone takes small steps, I think they're doing a lot right. But that's just my impression.