Summary

• Get free remote working software
• Create team documentation
• Store shared files in a central location
• Decide where conversations take place
• Schedule regular coffee break calls

Create team documentation

Most of us don’t like writing documentation at the best of times but when going remote, a great team wiki or docs portal can help keep everyone in the loop and reduce repetitive questioning in team chat.

Choose a solution that tracks changes (version control) and if needed, has an easy to use interface for non-technical people. We use wiki.js backed by git.

You should document something if you have to say it more than once. This will empower people to answer their own questions by searching for the answer.

If you are looking for a good example of team documentation take a look at GitLab’s public handbook (our wiki is private).

Store shared files in a central location

It might be quick and easy to share files via email and team chat but things can get out of hand really quickly. Stitching related components together or deciphering cryptic file names to find the latest version is frustrating work. We use NextCloud to centrally store, share and collaborate on files and stay organized.

Decide where conversations take place

With your team using email, chat and a plethora of other collaboration tools, keeping up with a stream of notifications and information can begin to feel like work itself.

Help your team decide where topics should be discussed. For example all external communication, HR and payroll via email and the rest on team chat.

You can provide further focus in team chat by directing project conversations to their own channels. For example we have a marketing team channel but created a project channel when developing the Librem Mini.

Schedule regular coffee break calls

When asked what people miss the most when going remote they often say their colleagues – well, at least some of them! Try scheduling regular team and individual coffee break calls. Like those informal water cooler and breakout room chats, these calls can be a place to decompress and feel connected in a time that’s both stressful and solitary.

What might feel awkward at first will quickly feel second nature after a few regular calls.

At Purism we keep in touch securely by using our free Librem Chat service powered by Matrix and Jitsi.

The post Our tips for remote working appeared first on Purism.

Chat, Calls and Video Conferencing

Team chat has already become an essential tool for teams looking to be more collaborative and less reliant on email. At Purism we use Matrix for team chat, 1 to 1 calls, video conferencing via Jitsi (open source video conferencing), adhoc file sharing and all our community chat channels. Matrix is a distributed (federated) network, similar to email, which means you can communicate across Matrix servers and compatible services.

You can self host Matrix or use a public instance like our own free Librem Chat service part of Librem One. All the goodness of Matrix conveniently hosted for you and accessible with one account that also gives you access to Librem Social, our hosted Mastodon instance, and our premium services: end-to-end encrypted email and VPN.

Audio Conferencing

We use Mumble for weekly team calls and general large group audio conferencing. We really like its low bandwidth requirements and found it scales really well for our all-hands meeting.

Social

Our primary social channel is on our free Librem Social service powered by Mastodon. Like Matrix, Mastodon is a distributed (federated) network, so you can create an account on one of the many public servers or host your own instance and still communicate across instances. Setting up a private company Mastadon can be a great way for everyone to share their days.

Forums

In addition to our community chat and social channels we have Discourse forums for our various products and support. Forums are great for long term conversations not suitable for chat. If you are new to remote work try out both team chat and forums to see what works for your team.

Project Management and DevOps

At Purism we have a pledge that all our software and hardware will be free/libre and open source. We host our own GitLab Community Edition instance for our source code, project management, support and DevOps. GitLab also has powerful user and group management which makes it easy to work with hundreds of active community contributors. For PureOS we also host phabricator for ticketing.

Content Authoring and Publishing

Our various web properties use WordPress for content authoring but we publish static sites for security and speed. We are looking to migrate to pure static site generators in the future but WordPress has been an essential tool for us to launch products and share updates with the community.

Calendar and Files

We heavily use NextCloud internally for our calenders, event scheduling, general file storage and collaborating on documents.

Operating System

At Purism we use PureOS, our secure GNU/Linux operating system based on Debian. PureOS comes with many security improvements over a default setup from the average Linux distribution. There’s support for our TPM chips and Librem Key. We’ve also enabled AppArmor for more secure apps and we’ve created a better, safer browsing experience by blocking ads and enforcing HTTPS everywhere. See the PureOS wiki to learn more about the extensive security features in PureOS.

PureOS is the same operating system we run on our Librem laptops, servers, our recently announced Librem Mini and even on our Librem 5 smartphone. Yes that’s right, the Librem 5 runs a complete desktop Linux experience with access to the same rich app ecosystem.

Other

Most office-based teams already have email and things like a company newsletter but we thought we’d share how we manage ours. Our company email and Librem Mail are powered by Dovecot and we use GNU Mailman for our newsletter and mailing lists. We also have an internal wiki based on wiki.js.

If you’d like to know more about how we work remotely let us know on social, chat or our forums.

The post Free software for remote working appeared first on Purism.

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with fphemeral, a longtime Purism community member, Librem 13 user and Librem 5 early-adopter. What stood out about fphemeral’s story was how big of role community and the the flexibility of our products played on his journey to improved privacy. Like many of our passionate community members, fphemeral is also developing a range of useful apps for his Librem 5 and sharing them with the community. Here’s the full conversation we recently had on Librem Chat.

Sean
Maybe we can start with some background on how you got involved with Purism?

fphemeral
It’s tricky to remember exactly when I got involved but I know for sure I got my current Librem 13 v1 after I learnt about Intel’s Management Engine and then I found out about Librem 5. When I saw it was going to have convergence, a feature I loved about the Ubuntu phone, I thought hell yeah this time it could actually work out! 😃

Sean
Convergence was also the feature that got me excited about the Ubuntu Phone. I’m excited that we can finally make it a reality with the Librem 5.

It’s great to hear your Librem 13 v1 is going strong! What’s your favorite thing about it?

fphemeral
Well I got my Librem 13 v1 when the next version was already out, but I really wanted an ethernet port so Mladen (Purism team member) helped me get a refurbished Librem 13 v1. I really like the ethernet port, hardware kill switches and the absence of branding! 😄

Sean
I believe you have been a Librem 5 early adopter?

fphemeral
Yes, I got a Librem 5 devkit early-on and recently received my Librem 5 Chestnut!

Sean
Are you building any applications for your Librem 5?

fphemeral
Yes, I develop on my Librem 13 and if it looks good there I push it via SSH to my Librem 5 to see how it looks and feels on a small screen. It’s really cool that you can use the same tech on your laptop and then copy it over to the phone.

Sean
What tech stack do you build your apps with and have you used libhandy?

fphemeral
Python and GTK. I love Python! ❤︎ 🙂 I am currently looking into integrating libhandy.

Sean
What kind of apps are you working on?

fphemeral
Currently I’m creating some quick-and-dirty l5_utils and l5_shoppinglist.

I’m also making my briar_repl – CLI messenger client for the Briar Messenger – usable on the Librem 5. Here’s a blog post covering it with a short video, the Librem 5 devkit also features in the article 😉

Sean
You’ve been really involved with the community and the Librem 5 in particular. Do you have any advice for other people on how to get involved?

fphemeral
Definitively get connected to the Librem 5 and devkit community chat channels. They’ve been very inspiring, I’ve learnt about so many new ideas and tools. Then of course read the Librem 5 and devkit docs – they were essential!

I’ve had a lot of conversations with Kyle and Sebastian from the Purism team, everyone has been super helpful. I also find Hackersgame’s YouYube channel to be a great resource!

Sean
Hackersgame just joined the team. He will be working on keeping everyone updated on the weekly Librem 5 developments, you can expect a lot more content!

fphemeral
Really? that is amazing! 😃 His videos are simply great, to the point and no nonsense!

Sean
How have you found the pace of the Librem 5 software improvements?

fphemeral
The current stream of system updates is amazing! Pretty much every few days there is another cool thing popping up or bug fixed.

Sean
What’s still on your list to make the Librem 5 your daily driver?

fphemeral
I’ve already checked off: podcasts, map, terminal, briar messenger and shopping list 😉

Battery life is important but it got way better with a recent update and I cannot wait for convergence! 🙂

I’m still so used to not having an email client on my not-so-trusted smartphone, so I haven’t looked into that yet. I am not a fan of cell providers tracking my every move.

Sean
I love that you have been checking some of those off with your own apps.

Battery life is going to be so much better with the larger capacity battery and our planned software improvements. Do you know what you are getting from a charge?

fphemeral
I’m not really sure, when I’m at a computer I keep it connected so I can SSH in. I mostly keep it off when traveling but use it for podcasts during my work lunch break and in the evening when grocery shopping.

Sean
Has anyone at work commented on your Librem 5?

fphemeral
I’ve demonstrated it to colleagues and friends, they definitively understood my enthusiasm about a fully user controlled smartphone! They know that privacy is a topic near to my heart.

I remember when I saw The monitored life of National Councilor Balthasar Glättli I was shocked at how much personal data companies collect. I didn’t want my cell provider to have that information so I switched to tails Linux and 90% flight mode.

I also use cash wherever possible and track my expenses with my own app that allows me to have insight into my spending without I bank and their partners seeing everything. There’s no public repo for the app yet but I might move it to my Librem 5 and then I’ll add it to source.puri.sm 🙂

Sean
I think we’ve covered a lot today! Thank you for your time today, your constant enthusiasm for what we do and your involvement in the community!

fphemeral
Yes we did cover a lot, thank you too!

You can follow fphemeral on source.puri.sm or chat to him on Matrix.

Discover the Librem 5

Purism believes building the Librem 5 is just one step on the road to launching a digital rights movement, where we—the-people stand up for our digital rights, where we place the control of your data and your family’s data back where it belongs: in your own hands.

Preorder now

The post An Interview with fphemeral:<br> Community Member & Librem 5 Early Adopter appeared first on Purism.

Some of the activities below were already mentioned in their own articles in Purism’s news archive; others will be covered in more depth in future articles. This is just a taste of all the work that goes into making the Librem 5 software stack. You can follow development more closely at source.puri.sm.

Power management

Improvements to Librem 5 battery charging and management, along with work on suspend management continue to help with heat, power and battery life issues.

• Fix charging detection on the tps6598x side, the bq2589x/upower side needs another fix to also get it right when power is available during boot
• Fix battery drain caused by tps6598x IRQ going crazy – this boosts the time the phone runs at a lower temperature.
• Unbreak real time clock, so that the time is kept when the phone is powered off.
• Suspend discussions: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-usb/38edc05e-680b-d881-49fc-e8230a93b2c8@puri.sm/
• librem5-base: Enable instant autosuspend for USB devices to save power.
• Fix battery drain caused by tps6598x IRQ, boosting the amount of time the phone runs before getting warm.

Keyboard

The virtual (on-screen) keyboard continues to grow and evolve, with performance improvements and new visual features.

• Terminal layout
• Emoji layout (in version 1.6.0)
• Documentation for testing new layouts
• Simplified the renderer
• Added DCO

Sensors

Initial work on light and motion sensors build the foundations for future work to integrate them into the shell.

• Fixed light sensor scaling to get correct values.
• Added proximity sensor support to iio-sensor-proxy so that it supports the sensor used in the Librem 5 and other devices.
• Motion sensor DTS updates were upstreamed see here and here.
• Support ambient light sensors using raw values – for vcnl4000 class and similar devices.
• lm3692: Use exponential brightness mode, making brightness sliders use the full range.

Shell and Compositor

Work to improve application handling continues alongside improvements to visual aspects that help to show the state of wireless and cellular network connections.

• Update wlroots submodule to include the virtual keyboard keycode 0 fix.
• Hide shell overlay when activating a fullscreen window
• Add doap file and expand uploaders
• Only show the WWAN icon if a modem is found, hiding the modem when ModemManager does not present one, more in line with the state of the kill switch and to make it look better on laptops without modems.
• Properly raise GTK application windows on activation
• Fix the wifi icon displaying incorrect state

System

Some parts of the system need work to ensure that everything works together as intended. These don’t always get the attention they deserve but help to make the system robust, and need to function correctly so that higher level components work properly.

• Fully turn off the backlight to save power when the brightness value is zero, and remove the hard-coded maximum.
• Turned custom backlight hacks into upstreamable kernel code.
• Add patched pulseaudio for loopback latency tweaks
• Add user purism to netdev group – to enable rfkill access so that things like GNOME Bluetooth work.
• Prepare to enable plymouth splash and disable blinking cursor by default, for when plymouth is included in the system image.
• Enable apparmor by default.
• Restrict dmesg access to be in-line with modern distros
• Enable acls on tmpfs (so logind can do it’s job and the purism user only gets privileges when logged in)

Design

Care is taken with the design so that the applications and system as a whole behave intuitively and consistently.

• Revisited the designs for the recent calls list and call details dialog in Calls.
• Worked on a pragmatic initial terminal keyboard layout.
• Started discussing an adaptive sound testing dialog upstream.

Apps

The applications and system components themselves continue to see improvements and new additions. This includes necessary work on upstream and backend software.

• Chats: window: Let F10 key open menu
• Chats: Add settings-dialog
• libpurple: Warn and return early if messaging is NULL
• Documents Reader (Evince) was ported to the Librem 5 and tagged for shipping.
• Contacts: Improved leaflet animation and added a back gesture – merged downstream and upstream.
• Settings: Implement new design for the Formats dialog
• Initial setup: Always change system language regardless of whether the user is new or existing.

Releases

During December new releases of core components were made.

• libhandy 0.0.12
• phosh 0.1.6
• phoc 0.1.4

Infrastructure

As the stack grows more mature, some builds are no longer needed, especially since we target the aarch64 architecture with the Librem 5.

• Drop more failing armhf builds

The post Librem 5 December 2019 Software Update appeared first on Purism.

Many people learn to code through making games for their computer or phone. One of the things I love most about the Librem 5 is that it’s a full computer in your pocket that isn’t locked-down like Android and iOS. This means you get access to more programming languages, tools, frameworks and engines than they do. In this post I’ll showcase popular free and open source game frameworks and engines running on, or building games for, the Librem 5. I’ll be continuously testing new projects and adding them to the list, so if you have a favorite that’s not here yet let us know and I will get to it.

LÖVE

LÖVE is a free, open source and fully-featured 2D game framework written in C++ and SDL and available on most platforms including PureOS for desktop and the Librem 5. Games are made with Lua, under-the-hood LÖVE uses LuaJIT – one of the fastest dynamic languages with the ability to call C code. You also get a simple and stable API and an active community with a wiki, forum, IRC server, Discord server and subreddit.

Install and run

# install dependencies
sudo apt install libluajit-5.1-dev libopenal-dev vflib3-dev libmodplug-dev libvorbis-dev libtheora-dev libmpg123-dev

# clone the project and build
git clone https://github.com/love2d/love.git
cd love
./platform/unix/automagic
./configure
make

# run
./src/love

Notes

LÖVE runs really well on the Librem 5 easily maintaining stable frame rates.

All features of the desktop API work on the Librem 5 but mobile-specific features such as sensors and multi-touch aren’t implemented yet. To use touch input listen to mouse events.

The version in the repository is broken, but building from the latest source works as expected.

Pyglet

Pyglet is a 2D and 3D Python OpenGL game framework available for desktop operating systems and most Arm Linux distributions including PureOS on the Librem 5. Pyglet may not be as popular as PyGame but it has a simpler more “Pythonic” API and requires less boilerplate code making it perfect for beginners. But Pyglet isn’t limited by its simplicity, you get full access to SDL via the Python API, which means 3D, shaders and much more. Pyglet also has an active community, wiki, mailing list and Discord server.

Install and run

# Python2 setup
sudo apt install unzip python-pyglet

# Python3 can be setup with pip
sudo apt install python3-pip unzip python3-setuptools freeglut3-dev python3-wheel
sudo pip3 install pyglet

# download examples
wget https://github.com/pyglet/pyglet/archive/v1.4.10.zip
unzip v1.4.10.zip

# run the asteroid example
export DISPLAY=:0
python2 ./pyglet-1.4.10/examples/game/version5/asteroid.py
python3 ./pyglet-1.4.10/examples/game/version5/asteroid.py

Notes

Pyglet also runs well on the Librem 5 but not as fast as LÖVE because Python is generally slower than Lua and significantly slower than LuaJIT. For simple games you won’t notice any slowdowns using Pyglet, but LÖVE and other C++/C based engines will allow you to make a more complex game.

All features of the desktop API work on the Librem 5 but mobile-specific features such as sensors and multi-touch aren’t implemented yet. To use touch input listen to mouse events.

Next up

We’re planning on testing Godot games and the editor but it won’t be useful on mobile until HDMI-out is enabled.

PyGame is probably the most popular Python game framework and it is often used for teaching so we’ll definitely be testing it soon.

Other things that comes to my mind are Allegro and MonoGame but I would love to hear the community’s suggestions.

Discover the Librem 5

Purism believes building the Librem 5 is just one step on the road to launching a digital rights movement, where we—the-people stand up for our digital rights, where we place the control of your data and your family’s data back where it belongs: in your own hands.

Preorder now

The post Librem 5 Game Development appeared first on Purism.

Read it Later

Bilal did an excellent job implementing Tobias’s designs, features include:

• Account login, logout and sync
• Views for archive, unread and favorite lists
• Add, edit and delete articles
• Reading articles in the app
• Context menu to manage articles
• Convergent UI that works on desktop and mobile
• Dark mode

Thib’s conversation with Bilal

Could you introduce yourself and share how you got involved with GNOME development?

I’m Bilal Elmoussaoui, I co-maintain GNOME Clocks and Sound Recorder and develop GNOME applications. I’m a long-time Linux user. I originally studied civil engineering and I’ve been learning to code for some time now, mostly writing web applications. I started contributing to GNOME projects while honing my Python skills.

You are now a maintainer of several GNOME apps.

Yes, I’ve started contributing to applications I use daily like FeedReader and Lollypop. The more I contribute, the more I learn about software development and the ecosystem. After a few years I found myself contributing to several GNOME applications, wherever I could make the user experience better for free software.

Could you tell us about your recently released Read It Later app?

Read It Later is a Wallabag client, which is a link saving service that you can host yourself. It includes all the basic features you would expect like managing and viewing articles. It also comes with easy-reader and dark modes in a beautiful and convergent design which adapts perfectly to desktop and mobile screens.

What technology did you use to create Read It Later?

I used to write applications with Python/Vala and GTK until late this summer when I got “The Rust programming language” book. It just sat on my desk for a while but I finally decided to pick something small to work on and made a simple Rust and GTK application template. The moment I opened my first GTK window with Rust I was hooked. The Rust GTK bindings have evolved a lot and we now have libhandy Rust bindings for adaptive widgets. Now I always pick Rust as a programming language, Meson as a build system and Flatpak to distribute my applications.

How did you discover libhandy and are you a mobile Linux enthusiast?

I spend a lot of time with the libhandy contributors on IRC and heard about it from them quite early on. I think Linux in your pocket has it’s place on market, especially with the increasing awareness of privacy issues. I now make all my apps adaptive so they are usable in desktop and mobile. Hopefully I can get my hands on a Librem 5 so I can make more stuff 🙂

source https://belmoussaoui.com/2020/02/04/read-it-later/

How close did you work with Purism’s GNOME Designer Tobias Bernard?

I’ve been working closely with the GNOME design team on a number of projects. We created various design tools which were implemented by Zander Brown, Julian, Jordan and myself. The design team are extremely talented and provide us with detailed mockups for applications and tools which we implement, gather feedback and iterate on. I used the same workflow with Read It Later. Tobias created and shared a mockup and provided continuous feedback during the development. The results is an app that looks pretty close to the original designs.

Was it easy to develop a convergent app with libhandy?

Using libhandy is easy to use as a GTK developer. You can achieve a lot by just replacing widgets with the adaptive libhandy equivalents. I have worked on porting parts of GNOME Clocks to libhandy and I plan to work on more apps in the next GNOME release cycle.

What apps are you working on next and will they be convergent?

I recently prototyped an adapative ticket wallet application and generally I’m looking forward to create more applications for Linux desktop and mobile users.

Thank you Bilal for your amazing work, we look forward to see what you do next.

Thank you for the conversation and interest in my work.

How to get Read it Later

Read it Later is available for the Librem 5 and most Linux distros via Flathub but the first thing you will need is your own Wallabag instance. You can either self host Wallabag, use the official hosting or other hosting solutions.

Once your server is setup grab a Wallabag browser plugin and finally install Read it Later from Flathub or source. Bilal is actively working on Read it Later, if you’ve found a bug or want to discuss features head over to the project’s home on GNOME’s GitLab instance.

Discover the Librem 5

Purism believes building the Librem 5 is just one step on the road to launching a digital rights movement, where we—the-people stand up for our digital rights, where we place the control of your data and your family’s data back where it belongs: in your own hands.

Preorder now

The post Community Story: Building a Librem 5 app with Rust and GTK appeared first on Purism.

Although the Librem 5 got a lot of attention this year, we had many milestone moments for our other products including v4 iterations of Librem 13 and 15 and a new version of Librem Key made entirely in the USA.

The year wasn’t just a great one for our physical products, we also launched Librem One, our open and privacy-focused alternatives for email, chat, social and VPN, anti-interdiction services and worked on hundreds of upstream contributions to Linux and various GNOME projects.

Today we announced the Librem Server. Available to order now, ships in weeks and already trusted by early customers for most of 2019.

To say thank you for being part of an incredible 2019 we are having a holiday sale until the end of the year!

• 10% off Librem laptops, Librem Key and the newly announced Librem Server.
• 20% off all Librem One annual plans for new and existing customers with coupon LOne2019Discount

Sale ends on the 31 December 2019 so hurry and don’t miss out!

Discover the Librem 5

Purism believes building the Librem 5 is just one step on the road to launching a digital rights movement, where we—the-people stand up for our digital rights, where we place the control of your data and your family’s data back where it belongs: in your own hands.

Preorder now

The post Holiday 2019 End of Year Sale appeared first on Purism.

Librem 5 Birch Hardware Schematics

We are excited to share the hardware schematics for the Librem 5 Birch batch with you today.

You may be wondering why anyone would share their hardware schematics with the world? After all making a ground breaking open and freedom respecting phone is expensive and takes a long time. We are doing it because we believe in the freedom to choose hardware and software that treats you like a person and not a commodity to be exploited for profit.

We believe that you should have full ownership of your hardware, you shouldn’t have to essentially rent it from a company to be safe. While privacy and security are popular marketing terms these days, when many companies use those words they expect your complete and blind trust and reliance. While we believe you should trust us, we don’t require you to put blind trust in us. By publishing our schematics we give you the ability to verify that trust on your own (or with the help of someone else).

We’ve previously released hardware schematics for the Librem 5 devkits and now the Librem 5 Birch batch and will continue to share up-to-date specifications for future products and iterations. Why is this important for you even if you have no interest in looking at the specifications? Open hardware schematics allow anyone to audit, verify and contribute to more freedom respecting products. You shouldn’t have to blindly trust that any corporation has your best interests in mind.

X-Ray Images

In addition to us publishing our hardware schematics we are also sharing X-Ray scans of the components to empower anyone with access to the tools to be able compare their hardware to the reference and ensure no nefarious components have been added. By being completely transparent, we are showing you can trust us rather than just telling you. We are also giving you the tools to verify that trust.

Discover the Librem 5

Purism believes building the Librem 5 is just one step on the road to launching a digital rights movement, where we—the people—stand up for our digital rights, where we place the control of your data and your family’s data back where it belongs: in your own hands.

Preorder now

The post A Different Kind of Transparency appeared first on Purism.

It’s Black Friday! Get 10% off the base Librem 13 v4 and Librem 15 v4 laptops. If you’re looking for added security choose a Pureboot bundle or our anti-interdiction services from the firmware drop-down on the configuration page. Shipping is on us too! We offer free international shipping to pretty much anywhere in the world.

What makes our Librem laptops so special? These are my favorite things:

• Disabled and neutralized Intel Management Engine
• Coreboot firmware, everything is open and auditable
• Heads and TPM for hack and tamper detection
• Hardware kill switches to disable WiFi/Bluetooth and Camera/Mic
• Anodized aluminum chassis with a full-size keyboard and good key travel
• i7 Processor, up to 32GB Ram, configurable NVMe Pro drives
• PureOS with the best privacy and security defaults
• Find out more on about the Librem 13 and Librem 15

Get 10% off a Librem Laptop

Discover the Librem 5

Purism believes building the Librem 5 is just one step on the road to launching a digital rights movement, where we—the people—stand up for our digital rights, where we place the control of your data and your family’s data back where it belongs: in your own hands.

Preorder now

The post Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2019 Laptop Specials appeared first on Purism.