[notatoad]

it seems like they would benefit from a purchasing experience that's a bit less like the traditional e-commerce checkout. i think this is one of the things kickstarter really excels at - allowing companies to sell products that aren't really ready for normal consumer purchasing without it "tainting their brand", because it sets expectations correctly.

If pine doesn't want price to be a barrier to purchasing their products (which is an admirable position), and they don't have the resources to serve all the orders they're getting, they should throw up some other barriers in the purchasing process to handle the demand. instead of selling direct, do bulk buys through linux user groups or something like that.