Since I'm completely surprised by this project and very attracted to it I thought it was best to google around for some perspective. Found this
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2960524/laptop-computers/why-...Among other things. My first question was, is the hardware open? Couldn't find an answer to that.
Edit: Apparently revision 2 of Purism will possibly have Coreboot.
Also worth noting is the Novena, which has similar goals:
https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novenaNovena contains 4x Cortex A9 CPU, thet is much less power and not enough power for more serious work :(
I would argue that it's really powerful for certain, niche applications. Having an FPGA onboard is awesome. Now if we can get software everyone uses (office apps, browsers, and the big ones, not specialized ones 1% of people use) maybe the Novena will be fine. We should get that anyway so mid/low-range smartphones can replace the PC for most people.