I don't want to start an argument, especially since we at Technoethical
believe that there is enough room for everyone in the world to sell laptops
with fully free BIOS and fully free OS. And we have other priorities, like
not disappointing our customers that are waiting to get their orders
delivered.
The difference between Technoethical's X200 and "Mini's X200" (marketed as
Libreboot X200 -- double wink for Leah) is not only the price, but also the
time, care and money that we put into refurbishing and replacing components
for the laptops that we sell. Our prices guarantee a fair trade.
We reinvest everything that is left after paying for our modest living costs,
donations to projects, and participation to free software events, into
stocking to allow us to keep our product quality standard and at the same
time process orders faster -- delivery time is something we definitely need
to improve. In practice, Technoethical works in a nonprofit fashion as our
foundation Ceata.
We do plan to offer for sale at lower prices liberated and fully functional
laptops with components that we couldn't refurbish and with lower
specifications (battery, WiFi, Bluetooth, memory, optical unit).
In connection with OP's question, besides Romania in European Union we
operate from other different countries (like USA, Russia, Australia) where
our members live and ship locally. We often deliver orders to the customers
that attend free software events that one or more of our members also attend
or even on our way back from these events. :-) Free software people
interested in local shipping or personal delivery can send us an e-mail and
we'll see if we can arrange it.
