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A Linux phone could run WhatsApp if the Linux distro was implemented in such a way that it could run Android apps (remember Android is basically just a runtime on top of the Linux kernel) and since AOSP is FOSS this is very doable and legal.

How commercially successful it'd be is still a different story, but it could run WhatsApp.

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Only if WhatsApp never activates SafetyNet: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28731431

WhatsApp has no motivation to use SafetyNet. For one thing plenty of their users use cheap Chinese phones that aren't actually Google certified (but come with the Play Store anyway) and they know this full well from their analytics.

For another, SafetyNet is used primarily for DRM on streaming services and for banking or other financial apps. Absolutely no messenger uses it that I am aware of (unless you count Snapchat as a "messenger" but that's literally it).

Every FB owned app runs fine on Android devices that fail SafetyNet. No reason to believe that'll change because where's the benefit for FB?

> unless you count Snapchat as a "messenger"

I do, and it's pretty popular, so I don't think you should discount it so quickly.

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