Not correct. Work started way earlier. See [this commit][1] from the Appcelerator CEO which creates the first hyperloop examples repo. And that repo was created because the community wanted to try hyperloop, which was already available but very alpha.
Also I made [some macros (Sweet.js) for Hyperloop][2] once the first alpha was released. Last commit is september 2014.
Choice here too - have been running Linux at home for almost 10 years and I never regretted it. There are almost no downsides, except careful choosing what hardware to buy and the lack of Photoshop (though Wine helps with that now).
Touch scrolling is not enabled for mobile devices since there is native scrolling already (with two fingers in iOS below 5 and with one in iOS5). Custom scrolling can be additionally enabled.
Regarding the license - we are using a "beta" license that should protect people from using beta quality software in production. We'll move to the dual-licensing scheme once we are out of beta. We also updated the FAQ accordingly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appcelerator_Titanium#History
Work on NativeScript began in 2014 with first public release in March 2015.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NativeScript