Comment by necovek

TBH, I prefer all of WebOS (on HP Pre 3), Maemo/Meego (on Nokia N9 and N900) and Ubuntu Touch (on Meizu MX4) over Android for the UX qualities.

Obviously, they lacked in phone hardware and app selection, but basic experience was unmatched.

IIRC, Sailfish was inspired or derived from Maemo, so I wouldn't be surprised it took some great stuff with it.

Hitting the critical mass is tricky without having hundreds of millions to lose before you "validate" your experiment: Nokia was at that point with N9 release (to a wide acclaim in reviews too), but shifted right after that release fully to Microsoft Windows straight to their demise.

Canonical pulled out quickly as well, and well, HP Pre 3 didn't even make it to the market (WebOS changed hands weeks before the release).

I actually used each of these phones for a couple of years, and that was so much smoother (OS-wise) than Android. Never used iOS for a longer period to make any claim there (though if I go by MacOS, it's much hype for nothing).