I understand being wary of Google - but yet, Facebook? You honestly think they're any better?

How about PlaysForSure then?

For MS it doesn't matter, they've money to burn. But for another manufacturer it doesn't seem like that good of a choice (as good as the platform may be) as is evident given how few new WP phones are announced that are not Lumia. I have to agree with you a bit though - I thought the original Nokia announcement was very strange. The fact that MS continues with this is bizarre.

Good for you - but I was talking about using Android as a phone platform. In order to get the Google apps (some manufacturers/users seem to value this) there are rules to follow; this is not an endorsement or criticism of Google, just a statement of fact. Also as said there's the Amazon route, also multiple other marginal Android versions such as the one FSF keeps promoting.

Well what are the alternatives for $PHONE_MANUFACTURER_THAT_IS_NOT_APPLE? iOS is not an option, WP has not managed to much traction so far (let alone Sailfish or Tizen). That leaves Android - in order to keep Google happy/get access to Google apps you have to abide by some rules, but one can also take the Amazon route.

On Linux (the opensuse-kde-friendly fork, running on Arch though), I cannot say I've found 29 that different. The tabs are more rounded, yes, but other than that, the difference is quite minimal. Instead of having a menu link on the left of the tabs, it's on the right of the location/search bars - I pretty much never use it anyway, so I don't really care.

On Windows 7 it is distracting, but I never liked the Aero transparency anyway. But on KDE, a non-issue personally. If Firebug works better, I'm all for it.

A great retort. Yet, you've been unable to answer the single question I posed earlier - care to name the malware that have got through Google Play?

Given how many people got headaches from the over-the-top animations in iOS7, and (up to a point) who could have got rid of said animations by simply going into the settings (but didn't figure this out before it was pointed out to them by multiple articles online), isn't the toggle in the settings really akin to a jailbreak? The majority of users will never venture there.

I think you are either ignorant or just deliberately dim - for the benefit of the doubt, I'll guess the former category. When it comes to the vast majority of Android devices being sold, by default they can only access Google Play. Yes, there is a checkbox you can check in the settings, allowing one to install apps from wherever (when that option is selected, there is naturally a warning). As an analogy, think jailbreaking your device, only it is not such a cat-and-mouse game, the ability is there should you want it. Then one can install apps from local files or add additional app sources. But before that it is Google Play only.

Really, apart from the soundbites given by evangelicals such as Cook, how many actual pieces of malware have slipped through the Play Store? Yes, installing random software from the net can be quite harmful, I guess that is given (there have been attacks on jailbroken iPhones as well). Personally, I like to have the ability to choose (yay for HumbleBundle), but I can see the point of the walled garden. Then again, Apple App Store is no panacea, as was proven quite recently.

With also the result that non-Safari browsers cannot run their own JS engine, having to use JavaScriptCore. Whereas Safari runs on Nitro. But hey, alternative browsers, it's great right?

There there, don't feel bad, have an apple. :)

...and I suppose, paying a monthly fee or not, there are clients for Android and Linux too, right?

Thanks for providing some concrete examples. So let us walk through your list:

Clang

I'll grant you that.

ALAC

Yes, that was open-sourced at some point. They could have worked on improving FLAC much before that, but at least it is OSS now.

libdispatch

As a Linux user, not so useful to me, but again, thumbs up.

mDNSResponder

I really had no idea what this was, had to google it. It seems most of the results are "what the hell is this thing and how do I turn it off" - but yes, I can see it being useful to someone.

Their CalDAV & CardDAV server

There are quite a few competing implementations, but again kudos for the effort.

Darwin Streaming Server

Hey, great, we've actually come to an example that seems to be generally beneficial.

But what I'm getting at is that despite their ample cash flow, you don't see "Apple Summer of Code" (just as an example - there are plenty of things to dislike about Google as well).

I think it is pretty obvious why they elected to do so, to hinder cross-platform development (amongst other platforms, iOS is a target for me professionally). But that was a response to the parent, who hoped that "Apple wouldn't be a douche and give the OSS community some support", to paraphrase - I think we've moved beyond the benefit of a doubt quite some time ago.