Most members here know my interest in extending hardware life as long as possible. While laptops and desktops offer many opportunities for upgrades and a new O/S, I just haven't had the same experience with Android tablets. Recently my 9-year-old Samsung TabA6 7.0 reached its EOL. The version of Android it runs just won't support my e-reader software any longer. It's also slow, memory and storage challenged, and the hardware cannot be upgraded. While it is possible to jump through many hoops to install a newer O/S, the fact you can't upgrade anything is a non-starter for me at least. With Father's Day coming up, I got a new Android TabA9 for around $130 Canadian. The old tablet went to Staples for the recycling pile. It bothers me to contribute to ewaste, but I just don't see an alternative.

Well I think they realized the benefit of open source and how they could use it in their own development. Sort of like Edge is literally Chromium rebranded. You can use chrome extensions in edge and vice versa.  

Only because they have realised that they can make even more loot. They do not have to have so many developers as the open source folk are doing all the heavy lifting,imho. 😎