In the earlier years of the decade, many companies battled to develop a smartphone operating system that could challenge Android and iOS. Microsoft was the best-known casualty of this doomed attempt, but many Linux-based offerings, from large companies like HPE, Samsung or Canonical, to start-ups like Jolla, also had a brief day in the sun. Of course, the fight has been restarted by the breaking of ties between Google and Huawei, as a result of US sanctions, which has driven the Chinese giant to develop its own mobile OS, Harmony. It remains to be seen how far the Chinese market, and some other Asian markets where Huawei is influential, will be enough to support a major new smartphone ecosystem. But…