Not quite as evil, but T-Mobile Germany is preventing me from flashing my HTC Hero and at the same time delay official updates by months. Suffice to say, I won't ever buy a phone from a mobile phone company again - they suck at software!
The only phone you actually have control over is a Nexus One. People still have to root HTC's other phones, Motorola phones, iPhones, and just about every other usable consumer phone device.
There's also Nokia's N900, which runs Maemo - a Debian derivative.
Indeed it does, but I don't count the N900 or OpenMoko, having used both, as usable general purpose phones.
Upvoted. I have one, and it's hands-down the best phone I've ever owned, precisely because it's rampantly open.