I’d consider it a significant advancement. Phones have much tighter regulations than many consumer devices and this may not necessarily align with Valve’s long-term business objectives, however, so I have some skepticism but would be pleasantly surprised if they pursued such an endeavor.

Like the backpedaling of Trump’s T1 phone to initially be claimed as “Made in America” until being publicly called out, not only by inquisitive people but also by a company furthest along in producing a fully “Made in USA” phone. The T1 phone marketing has been relegated to featuring a “proudly American” design.

There are alternatives to Google and Apple products. I recommend the MNT Pocket Reform if you’d like a full keyboard, or a Librem 5 if you prefer a more typical smartphone form factor.

I wrote this suite of scripts a few years ago and still use them to:

1. Boot into Ventoy and select a Debian Live environment
2. Optional: connect a storage device (local partition, USB drive, etc) for persistent storage
3. Modify cfg/cfg.sh if it’s the first time using the tool
4. Run setup.sh to configure the environment into a familiar/productive state

The tools are flexible on hardware (more directed toward x64 systems at this time), and I (almost) never have to worry about OS upgrades. Just boot into a newer live OS image once it’s ready. They are still a work-in-progress and still have a few customizations that I should abstract for more general use, but it’s FOSS in case anyone has merge requests, issues, suggestions, etc.

Linux has been ready for some time within various educational programs, but maybe you are referring to relatively early education curriculum in public schools? The general anecdotes I’ve heard from teachers within a variety of grade levels in the USA (mostly elementary and high school levels, but some doctoral engineering/scientific as well) convey that the largest hurdles to overcome are:

1. Teaching the teachers. Teachers are usually very smart and capable, but are often chronically overworked, overstressed, and underpaid for their labor. They have limited mental bandwidth in learning new tech workflows while having the added obligation of teaching these workflows to students which may be at an attention/interest deficit.
2. Challenging the status quo at the administrative level. Schools often receive incentives, grants, steep discounts, etc, for installing certain types of hardware or software packages. The software baselines of some schools are restricted at the district level; many public libraries are restricted by the city/county. Perhaps the best approach here is to install Linux as a “secondary” option (similar to how a smaller number of e.g. Macs may be installed in a computer lab comprised mostly of Windows computers) until it’s more widely adopted.
3. Advocating for equivalent Linux support for popular proprietary software. This is especially true for the creative design community, such as graphic design and professional music production. Adobe is usually the target of criticism here; Linux does not currently hold enough market share to capture Adobe’s attention while their patrons usually have unwavering brand loyalty or are unwilling to make any tooling/workflow compromises as to maintain their livelihood.
4. FOSS-friendly awareness campaigns. Showing people that they can remain productive while not being at the mercy of Big Tech. Not using public funds for private industry.
5. Feature parity case studies compared to proprietary options.
6. Overcoming the stereotype that Linux is only for techy people, shrouded by gatekeepers, or subject to drama/infighting.

In the meantime, the Liberty phone seems to be the closest option for a US-made smartphone. While not entirely comprised of US-sourced components, the PCBs are manufactured in California, as well as device packaging and assembly.

April 10 update: Right on time, the author of the OP’s linked article has now published an article on the Liberty phone.

If anyone remembers the Mycroft Mark II Voice Assistant Kickstarter and was disappointed when development challenges and patent trolls caused the company’s untimely demise, know that hope is not lost for a FOSS/OSHW voice assistant insulated from Big Tech…

FAQ: OVOS, Neon, and the Future of the Mycroft Voice Assistant

Disclaimer: I do not represent any of these organizations in any way; I just believe in their mission and wish them all the success in getting there by spreading the word.

The Librem 5 offers hardware killswitches on the side of the phone, and the Pinephone offers hardware killswitches in the rear of the device after removing the backplate.

Purism is slowly correcting course regarding refund policies, but meaningful improvements take time. Also, the letter from “Purism” to Rossmann came from a Purism volunteer who had no authority to publicly represent the company.