FLOSS applications – Purism https://puri.sm/ High-quality computers that protect your freedom and privacy Wed, 01 Oct 2025 18:29:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.28 https://puri.sm/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-purism-logo-rectangle-1-32x32.png FLOSS applications – Purism https://puri.sm/ 32 32 The Quiet Revolution: GNU/Linux Crosses 6% Desktop Market Share—And It’s Just the Beginning https://puri.sm/posts/the-quiet-revolution-gnu-linux-crosses-6-desktop-market-share-and-its-just-the-beginning/ Fri, 29 Aug 2025 01:21:31 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=84000 For decades, the phrase “Year of the Linux Desktop” has been tossed around like a tech industry punchline. But now, it’s no longer a meme—it’s a movement. According to the U.S. government’s own analytics, GNU/Linux has officially crossed the 6% threshold in desktop usage. That’s not hype. That’s hard data.

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]]> Germany Puts Microsoft on Watch—Why PureOS Offers a Safer, More Transparent Alternative https://puri.sm/posts/germany-puts-microsoft-on-watch-why-pureos-offers-a-safer-more-transparent-alternative/ Mon, 21 Jul 2025 15:39:07 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=83684 In a major move that underscores rising global concern over Big Tech power, Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has officially designated Microsoft as having "paramount significance for competition across markets." This rare designation opens the door for closer scrutiny and intervention by German regulators—especially around Microsoft’s growing role in artificial intelligence and its tightly woven ecosystem of services.

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]]> The Importance of Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) https://puri.sm/posts/the-importance-of-software-bill-of-materials-sbom/ Fri, 21 Mar 2025 14:02:56 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=82807 The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been at the forefront of enhancing software supply chain security through its Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) initiatives. The SBOM is a comprehensive inventory of all components, libraries, and dependencies used in software development. This transparency is crucial for identifying potential vulnerabilities and mitigating risks associated with software supply chains.

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]]> The Case for Free/Libre and Open-Source Software: Enhancing Security and Privacy in the Digital Age https://puri.sm/posts/the-case-for-free-libre-and-open-source-software-enhancing-security-and-privacy-in-the-digital-age/ Tue, 22 Oct 2024 20:23:39 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=82548 Given the 21st century world’s reliance on digital technology, it should go without saying that privacy and security are pressing concerns — for individuals as well as federal and corporate entities. With an abundance of tools at our disposal, however, how do we make informed decisions about which to use to best ensure sensitive information is safe from prying eyes? At Purism, we advocate for the use of Free/Libre and Open-Source Software (FLOSS / OSS) as a cornerstone of any secure and private digital environment.

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]]> Free-Software Purism Game Jam https://puri.sm/posts/free-software-purism-game-jam/ Mon, 03 Jun 2024 17:52:40 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=81850 The first Purism Free Software Game Jam is right around the corner, scheduled for June 10th! This event is designed to promote freedom-respecting software through the creation of video games. Purism understands that it’s not just tools that should be open source; games play a vital role in inspiring the next generation of developers to […]

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]]> Swinging Back to Open Standards https://puri.sm/posts/swinging-back-to-open-standards/ Thu, 17 Nov 2022 17:01:18 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=76401 History is a series of pendulum swings between opposite extremes. A generation moves in a certain direction, and the next generation reacts based on the consequences (often rejecting it). Eventually a new generation appears that never directly experienced the consequences and lessons from the previous generations, who then moves back toward that direction and the […]

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]]> Thank You For Joining Us https://puri.sm/posts/thank-you-for-joining-us/ Mon, 12 Sep 2022 16:34:50 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=75897 It has been a long and difficult journey to build a freedom- and privacy-respecting phone like the Librem 5. While the end of this journey is in sight, we aren’t quite there yet, and I wanted to take some time to do something we should do more often: acknowledge and thank all of you who […]

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]]> Purism at Berlin Mini GUADEC https://puri.sm/posts/purism-at-berlin-mini-guadec/ Mon, 08 Aug 2022 16:26:32 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=75603 GUADEC is the main yearly GNOME conference, where developers, designers, and other community members gather in one place to watch talks, hack on new features, and plan for the future. Given Purism’s close involvement with GNOME development we used to attend GUADEC as a team before COVID, but of course in the past two years […]

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]]> Privacy in Depth https://puri.sm/posts/privacy-in-depth/ Thu, 14 Jul 2022 15:52:51 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=75493 In the security world there is a concept called “Defense in Depth” that refers to setting up layers of defense so that if an attacker bypasses one layer there are other layers they must contend with. In physical security this might take the form of a lock on the outside door of an office building, […]

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]]> Free Software Support Is Critical to Its Success https://puri.sm/posts/free-software-support-is-critical-to-its-success/ Tue, 17 May 2022 18:37:49 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=73053 I’ve been in many “Linux on the Desktop” debates over the years and my stance today is largely the same as two decades ago: if you want free software to succeed, it must be pre-installed on hardware where all hardware features work, with a hardware vendor that supports it. It doesn’t matter nearly as much […]

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]]> Cameras: It’s Complicated https://puri.sm/posts/cameras-its-complicated/ Mon, 09 May 2022 15:39:40 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=74945 Two years before I started working on cameras for the Librem 5, I thought the work would go something like this: first, write a driver, then maybe calibrate the colors, connect to the camera support infrastructure, and bam! PureOS users on the phone would then do teleconferences with Jitsi or snap selfies with Cheese, just […]

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]]> Why I Support Purism, A Tech Company that Respects Digital Rights https://puri.sm/posts/why-i-support-purism-a-tech-company-that-respects-digital-rights/ Wed, 04 May 2022 17:54:46 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=74913 I started working with personal computers over 40 years ago, back when an IBM desktop computer with 64KB of RAM and two 360KB floppy disks cost almost CAD$10,000. I bought the first Macintosh computer sold in Canada from the Hudson’s Bay Company in Montreal. I bought the first iPhone in Buffalo on the day the […]

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]]> Animating Pepper & Carrot with a respectful laptop https://puri.sm/posts/animating-pepper-carrot-with-librem-laptop/ Mon, 25 Apr 2022 15:16:43 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=74674 I made a 2D traditional animation as part of a project I am working on for Purism, with a goal to demonstrate the power of the Librem 14 as a creative platform. Therefore, as a follow up to my previous post about making hand drawn animations with Librem computers, and as an addition to the […]

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]]> Freedom From Coercion https://puri.sm/posts/freedom-from-coercion/ Wed, 30 Mar 2022 14:58:54 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=74520 This past week, as part of escalating sanctions between the West and Russia because of the war in Ukraine, the FCC added the security company Kaspersky (creator of the popular Kaspersky Anti-Virus software) to its “security threat list” which means products from that company aren’t eligible for FCC funds. It’s important to note that this […]

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]]> I (Finally) Fired Google https://puri.sm/posts/i-finally-fired-google/ Fri, 11 Feb 2022 17:44:52 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=74052 While I have been working for many years to remove all aspects of Google from my personal life, it was only this past week that I replaced the final piece. As of this week I have finally fired Google. It wasn’t easy, and in this post I’ll tell my story of how tightly Google was […]

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]]> How Purism Funds Free Software https://puri.sm/posts/how-purism-funds-free-software/ Mon, 18 Oct 2021 17:41:23 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=72740 Free software isn’t free. Free software geeks love to correct people by saying that the “free” in “free software” refers to freedom (libre), not cost (gratis). We even join in this word play at Purism by naming our laptops Librem–a combination of the words libre (freedom) and librum (book). Whether free software is written as […]

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]]> Announcing a New Video Series: Video Editing with Linux https://puri.sm/posts/announcing-a-new-video-series-video-editing-with-linux/ Tue, 21 Sep 2021 17:12:52 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=72859 When we were designing the Librem 14, we wanted it to be our dream laptop in all possible respects. This meant squeezing the most resources we could fit in there that could run coreboot and PureBoot. We settled on a tenth generation Intel i7 10710U CPU with 6 cores and 12 threads and combined with […]

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]]> Qubes Now A Preinstall Option for Librem 14 and Mini https://puri.sm/posts/qubes-now-a-preinstall-option-for-librem-14-and-mini/ Tue, 07 Sep 2021 17:17:48 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=72793 While we default to our own PureOS on our hardware, we have also supported the high-security QubesOS on Purism hardware ever since the Librem 13 v1 became the first hardware officially supported by the Qubes project. Since then we have continued to treat Qubes as a first-class citizen and ensured that it works well on […]

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]]> Software Updates that Respects Civil Liberties https://puri.sm/posts/software-updates-that-respects-civil-liberties/ Mon, 21 Jun 2021 18:59:00 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=72247 Yet-another reminder of how disrespectful Apple, Google, and Microsoft are with their software update process was highlighted to Android phones that were in Massachusets, USA. The unintentionally descriptively named “MassNotify” application was installed to all Android phones in Mass.—en masse—without consent. Mass Upgrade, Without Consent From a forced album install by Apple, to the forced […]

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]]> Making a Platform Adaptive for Everyone https://puri.sm/posts/making-a-platform-adaptive-for-everyone/ Thu, 10 Jun 2021 18:13:00 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=72145 A Mobile Platform When we announced the Librem 5, we knew we would have to invest in and build a mobile operating system and applications to run on it — by “mobile” understand “for smartphones”. To avoid reinventing the wheel, we decided to base that system on an existing environment. Librem laptops ship with our […]

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]]> What’s new in PureOS 10 https://puri.sm/posts/whats-new-in-pureos-10/ Mon, 24 May 2021 15:57:41 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=71380  The Librem 14 comes with new software — here’s some of the new things coming your way PureOS 10 is going to be our new release for the Librem 14, Librem 5, and Librem Mini. You may already be familiar with its code name “Byzantium” but what happens next is that it moves to our […]

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]]> Audacity Telemetry and Why Free Software Means Better Privacy https://puri.sm/posts/audacity-telemetry-and-why-free-software-means-better-privacy/ Fri, 07 May 2021 19:47:15 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=71741 Many people accept that free software tends to protect your privacy better than proprietary alternatives, but they may not understand why that is. This week’s news about the Audacity project adding telemetry and the public outcry is a perfect test case to explore why free software means better privacy. If you haven’t been following the […]

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]]> The Simplicity of Making Librem 5 Apps https://puri.sm/posts/the-simplicity-of-making-librem-5-apps/ Fri, 09 Apr 2021 16:46:46 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=71520 The Librem 5 makes its application development workflow extremely simple.

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]]> Snitching on Phones That Snitch On You https://puri.sm/posts/snitching-on-phones-that-snitch-on-you/ Wed, 31 Mar 2021 21:01:11 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=71419 One of the problems with the security measures implemented in Android and iOS is that they restrict the user as much, if not more, than they restrict an attacker.

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]]> Phosh Overview https://puri.sm/posts/phosh-overview/ Tue, 29 Dec 2020 15:44:44 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=70682 phosh is graphical shell for mobile, touch based devices like smart phones. It's the default graphical shell on Purism's Librem 5 (and that's where it came to life) but projects like Postmarket OS, Mobian and Debian have picked it up putting it into use on other devices as well and contributing patches.

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]]> Why FSF Endorsing PureOS Matters https://puri.sm/posts/why-fsf-endorsing-pureos-matters/ Mon, 21 Dec 2020 19:23:19 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=70592 It was three years ago today, December 21, 2017, that the Free Software Foundation announced it had endorsed PureOS. Getting FSF endorsement is not an easy task and involves a lot of rigorous evaluation. Sometimes people ask us why we decided to create and maintain PureOS instead of using an existing distribution such as Debian […]

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]]> Librem 5 Screenshots Snapshot 2020-11-15 https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-screenshots-snapshot-2020-11-15/ Mon, 16 Nov 2020 03:01:47 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=69926 With the Librem 5 mass production beginning to ship imminently, we are publishing some image screenshots to snapshot this momentous occasion. Taken from a Librem 5 Evergreen (mass production) release on November 15th, 2020.      

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]]> The General Purpose Computer In Your Pocket https://puri.sm/posts/the-general-purpose-computer-in-your-pocket/ Thu, 29 Oct 2020 17:28:10 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=69738 Computers have us surrounded. Just about every piece of consumer electronics these days puts “smart” in front of the name, which means they embedded a computer that runs specialized software. The “smart” trend started with “smartphones” which marketers started calling cellular phones once they got powerful enough processors to run a general-purpose operating system and […]

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]]> Hand Drawn 2D Animation with PureOS and Librem Laptops https://puri.sm/posts/hand-drawn-2d-animation-with-pureos-and-librem-laptops/ Tue, 13 Oct 2020 13:35:47 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=69658 Professional animation is not just possible but ideal with free software, this story shares what is possible running PureOS, Librem laptops, and accessories. I have been using free software for 6 years and each year these freedom respecting professional tools I use seem to improve faster than the commercial proprietary pace. Krita, as an example, […]

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]]> Purism Launches Fund Your App Page https://puri.sm/posts/purism-launches-fund-your-app-page/ Thu, 08 Oct 2020 07:45:04 +0000 https://puri.sm/?p=69343 SAN FRANCISCO, October 8, 2020 — Purism, a Social Purpose Company (SPC) focusing on security and privacy with its hardware and software, has launched a Fund Your App campaign to allow people to vote for the mobile phone apps they desire to see working on the Librem 5 phone. With an ever increasing number of […]

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