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System76 reveal the new Adder WS laptop, their "most affordable" powerhouse [$2,099]
(www.gamingonlinux.com)
this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
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System76 uses core boot and open source components for as much of the system as possible, you're inherently going to pay more for this. It's not what is being offered to you by another seller under the name "laptop" which you or the community writing your software has to reverse engineer, and in the category of products that it lives within it could most certainly be considered affordable, especially if you take into account the longer useful lifespan afforded to you by repairable open-sourced components.
It does inherently mean more expensive when it comes to hardware and technology, the specific thing we're talking about?... Feel free to do research if you'd like. System76 is very open with this information, as is the open source hardware community in general.
With hardware you will always have higher per unit costs for more niche product lines due to weaker economies of scale.
It's true for hardware products that are free (as in freedom) or apple products (e.g. Vision Pro).
Not much we can do about this, short of a revolution in 3D printing and distribution systems (you will never be able to 3D print all components; e.g. semiconductors).
You're also going to have higher costs from a company offering something open and free, because they're not hiding costs from you. Proprietary hardware vendors consistently use methods to hide cost from consumers. Oem licensing deals, update costs, making up the money on the repair side. List goes on. End result? In this "free" market, a proprietary company will always be able to offer a lower selling price.
To add to the list: planned obsolescence (eg closed sauce drivers in case of PCs), "sponsors" lowering your initial purchase costs by installing bloatware apps (that most people then just keep - or like with phones need at last a PC to uninstall), ads, etc.
(I assume by OEM licences you meant more hardware side.)