I really love what Purism is doing and I would kill to have one of their laptops, however they are simply too pricey. Will Purism ever release a portable budget laptop? Or should I look for used Purism laptops for a cheaper price?
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If I’m remembering previous discussions correctly, Purism doesn’t currently plan any cheaper laptops, but they have mentioned the possibility of selling refurbished laptops, which would bring the price down a bit.
I have no idea what timeline such a plan would be working on, though.
@wctaylor: I think I read somewhere that one can just contact them by mail for available used ones. It’s just not on the website.
@Napalm: I guess it depends what you’re asking. I don’t see a $500 budget laptop from Purism, surely not in the next 5 years and maybe never. But it’s also not that they make it pricey to create freedom for the elite.
I would hope for Librems to get closer to $999 over the next years.
Prices already dropped over the years. I think it was $200 more for the original Librem. A few months ago you had to pay extra shipping and TPM was not included. A few weeks ago, they had a sale, $100 off.
So, the general trend is: More boom for less bucks 
However, that trend only continues if the customer base grows. I only swallowed the bitter pill to pay like $1600 because I want a future where I
- can order more stuff like that
- the pill is less bitter
You could say the laptop is $999, plus a #MakeComputersGreatAgain-Tax of $400 
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@Napalm I personally save a search on ebay in case things like this turn up, I have to make a choice between the laptop and the phone and I choose the phone, but if you want to try your luck, then I hope you win the bidding war! 
I thought the price was a bit high when compared to some others. I was however looking for a machine that was well made. I have been on a MacBookPro for many years. I wanted a machine that was open to run Linux without issue. AND the security hardware and future development I decided to take the plunge. I am more than pleased with the machine I have replaced my year old MBP with. I have bought cheaper laptops experiemnting with Linux as a daily replacement. All I can say is you get what you pay for. The Librem 13 is rock solid. I would love to get it for $1k but I understand there are reasons some laptops are cheaper.
Just my 2 cents.
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There are plenty of naysayers out there. Recent articles, unpublished at the demand of Intel, show Purism employs extremely skilled engineers to reverse engineer the inner workings of modern systems. I myself am extremely happy to see the progress they are making.
https://puri.sm/learn/freedom-roadmap/
You have the fact that sales funds their primary mission, and also the factor of economies of scale. Hope that as Purism grows closer to their goal, demand increases and prices can drop. Maybe being distinguished as the ONLY modern laptop available with FSF certification will tip the balance.
A lot of these open source supporters will tell you we need to run a laptop released in 2002. That any idea of freeing modern systems is absolutely hopeless. Impossible. (Purism is the only company doing this.)
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