They say it's a waste of money
I don't think so. The thing here is not in the value of device, but user and his data. First of all, I think about Pyra a bit like about a smaller/slower laptop like PDA, not a gaming console.
Let's compare it with modern smartphones. They are cheap, their apps are usually free/very cheap but most are not open. Releasing them is far from freeware market of early 1990s, it is needed to put quite significant amount of money in app (+its network infrastructure) to release it. Why is it happening? Because modern smartphones are all paid in installments.
First one is paying for the device. Second - for software. These two ones have a specified price.
But then the third installment comes - user's data. In optimistic case user is just profiled and sold to ad companies. In more realistic case, all user's creation is distributed and may be sold in other countries. Probability of getting significant gain from this part is taken into consideration in a smart device's price.
Contrary to this model, in Pyra there is Linux, applications in Debian's repository have quite clear license and operation principle. Data is processed the way user wants. Wants to keep it in /home or even some /home/EncFS_folder? OK. Wants to put on anonymous FTP? OK.
So if someone thinks that Pyra is the waste of money contrary to other PDA/smartphone, his digital creations are not worth much, smaller than price difference.
