Re: "Android was successful because it brought a common API for applications."
No, Android was successful because of the marketing manily generated by the iPhone and due of the use of Java as a transition tool, since most mobile operating systems before Android were Java based, having a common set of widgets and APIs doesn't guarantee the success of an operating system, many have had it and have failed miserably too.
And the same as always, Linux is not the only OS family that uses QT and GTK and so on, BSD, Illumos, Solaris, etc. also uses it, none of these systems have a common GUI API, nor can they because it will repeat the failure of Motif and CDE due to lack of differentation, with CDE they wanted a standard desktop for UNIX and UNIX-like systems but since they were all different operating systems with different kernels architecture, etc it ended up being very confusing for users, who believed that they were all the same OS because they looked the same, until you find out the truth, with disastrous results.
The only real solution to this issue is to create a desktop API that doesn't rely on the GUI and be part of the UNIX standards/certifications, this would allow these systems to continue to differentiate themselves, which is key to success, so that Linux, BSD and others integrate it as part of the base system. But since everyone wants to innovate on their own and exclude the rest, just like proprietary software developers, it's very unlikely that this will happen.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
