It’s quite explicitly a phone for people who are either ideologically behind the project, aren’t afraid of tinkering, and have a bunch of disposable income.

You do realize that the Librem 5 has been out since … checks Wikipedia … September honking 2019.

Doesn’t have anything to do with Linux–software and hardware development are immensely expensive. Software usually being free and hardware cheap has everything to do with scale and easy replication.

Unlike most everyone else, Purism is trying the organic-funding model rather than the VC unicorn sellout rollercoaster. I use a phone with Calyx which is free but the only reason it can be free, is free is that Google is doing 99% of the work. Purism is bringing Gnome to a phone, so they only get 95% for free which completely tips off the balance. (The numbers are invented but they’re only here for illustrative purposes anyway.)

None of this is to say that I would ever buy their phone because for all intensive purposes, it sucks.

I guess you’re right in that the headline is not Onion-worthy. But I find “it’s not cheating to cheat using a machine, let’s sue” a rather creative approach.

A man of the people, chatting with one of the people.