Ruben De Smet retweetledi
MWC2026 was incredible. Over 2,000 people visited our stand, 100,000+ visited Jolla shop during the week, and we got overwhelming support from media, community and visitors who want an independent European mobile OS to exist. Thank you.
Alongside all the love, I also see some hate from other alternative OS projects. I feel sad about this, as we don’t compete against other alternative OSes. We compete against the big tech and their dominance over the people.
So let me tell you who we are and where we come from.
Jolla was founded in 2011 to continue Nokia's MeeGo OS, which Microsoft killed after acquiring Nokia. It was a gigantic project for a startup. We quickly grew to 120 people, burning €1M per month with no major VC backing — Finland was not Silicon Valley back then. I personally became a fundraising machine: every 6 months I closed a round, and the morning after closing I started planning the next one, because I knew we'd be out of money in 6 months if I didn't.
The community saved us multiple times. Our first phone pre-order campaign in 2013 was the most successful crowdfunding campaign of its time — it rescued the company after we lost our chipset vendor partnership overnight.
But a €1M monthly burn with no major partnerships is unsustainable. We started gradually losing control to investors with different agendas. Not overnight — gradually. By 2017 I had lost control of the company and left.
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, I started negotiating to bring Jolla back into Finnish ownership. I spent 14 months in direct negotiations with Rostelecom — the Russian state operator that held the controlling stake. Eventually I had to accept we were going nowhere. May 2023, I walked away from the table.
June 2023, Jolla entered voluntary restructuring. August 2023, the Municipal Court of Pirkanmaa ruled that Jolla's business, IP and personnel could be sold to a new company. I established that company — temporarily named Jollyboys Oy (I had to give it a name before we had rights to the Jolla brand, and I have sometimes weird humor).
In November 2023, Jolla's creditors — the Finnish state, a major Finnish pension fund, and two leading Finnish law firms — voted in favour. Jolla was reborn as a 100% Finnish-owned company. Rostelecom appealed. They lost.
So yes, Jolla has a history. We have always been open about it. None of it was hidden.
Is Sailfish OS perfect? No. There is a lot to improve and a long way to go. We will gradually open source it, step by step. It may not yet be where the hardcore privacy community wants us to be — but we will get there. In the meantime, we can serve ordinary people who want privacy and real control over their data. A physical switch that cuts camera, microphone and Android apps with one press of a button is a great start.
I have been in this business for 15 years. I have seen many OS projects come and go, or end up controlled by Google. The only way alternative operating systems win is if we help each other. Spreading hate helps no one.
Jolla does not participate in spreading hate. We only spread love.
The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.
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