The Nokia phones had closed binary blobs that required a custom kernel version (so e.g. the Nokia N900 is forever stuck on kernel 2.6), as well as modems that were not isolated from memory. Also, many UI components on Nokia’s OS and Sailfish were closed-source. Yes, they used a lot of Linux-associated software, but the reason why the Pinephone is getting such buzz is that it is both completely open and also it runs a mainline kernel that can be upgraded at will.

> Yes, they used a lot of Linux-associated software

That's a bit of an understatement. It's not 'a lot'. Everything running on those phones is a GNU/linux application. The fact that there are binary blobs and that the UI was closed source doesn't take away from that. The post I was replying to was complaining about linux phones, not about "open hardware/open source" phones.