Orinda, CA/San Francisco, September 19, 2017 – The GNOME Foundation has provided their endorsement and support of Purism’s efforts to build the Librem 5, which if successful will be the world’s first free and open smartphone with end-to-end encryption and enhanced user protections. The Librem 5 is a hardware platform the Foundation is interested in advancing as a GNOME/GTK phone device. The GNOME Foundation is committed to partnering with Purism to create hackfests, tools, emulators, and build awareness that surround moving GNOME/GTK onto the Librem 5 phone. Read more
Tag: Phones
GNOME & KDE: The Purism Librem 5 phone is building a shared platform, not walled gardens
You might have heard about our Librem 5 phone campaign that we recently launched and that has now crossed the $300,000 milestone. If you are reading this particular blog post, it is quite probably because you are a member of the great GNOME/KDE/freedesktop community, and if you were expecting the Librem 5 to be only “a GNOME phone” and exclusionary of others you will be happy to know that Purism is working with both KDE e.V. and the GNOME Foundation, and will continue to do so.
As a matter of fact, to the question “Will you be running GNOME, Plasma, or your own custom UI?”, our campaign page’s FAQ stated, from the beginning:
“We will be working with both GNOME/GTK and KDE/Plasma communities, and have partnered with the foundations behind them for the middleware layer. PureOS currently is GNOME-based and our great experience with working with GNOME as an upstream as well as GNOME’s OS and design-centric development model; however we will also test, support, and develop with KDE and the KDE community, and of course we will support Qt for application development. We will continue to test GNOME and Plasma, and should have a final direction within a month after funding success. Whatever is chosen, Purism will be working with both communities in an upstream-first fashion.”
As a point of clarification, Purism is supporting GNOME/GTK and will continue to do so; Purism is also supporting KDE/Plasma and will continue; forming partnerships with these great communities is a way to establish our long-term commitment to those goals.
Likewise, Purism will ship PureOS by default on the Librem 5, but will support and work with other GNU/Linux distributions wishing to take advantage of this device.
The Librem 5 is about users reclaiming their rights to freedom, privacy and security on their mobile communication devices (also known as pocket computer, smartphone, etc.) with a platform that they love and trust. It is not about creating walled gardens, erecting barriers and division in the free desktop community, and reigniting the Desktop Wars of the past:
We are planning to empower users to run both GNOME, KDE, or whatever they see fit, on their GNU+Linux phone—just like we can have both GNOME and KDE on the same desktop/laptop today. The fact that we are going to be making an integrated convenient product that may or may not be a vanilla or heavily modified version of one of these two desktops as the “official recommended turnkey product choice for customers” takes away nothing from the value of these environments or from the ability to run and tinker with whatever Free and Open-Source software you see fit on your device—a device that you can truly own.
What we are providing here is a reference platform that is not Android, for both GNOME and KDE communities—we just so happen to need to provide it as a turnkey usable product for less tech-savvy customers as well, while doing it 100% in the open, upstream-first, like a true Free Software project should be. Right now, the exact set of software technologies we will base our “integrated product” on—whether closely based on KDE, or GNOME—is something we are still evaluating and will decide along the way. There is no “us” vs “them” here. The two projects are in different states of advancement when it comes to mobile and touch technologies, and both communities have their specificities, expertise, and strengths. No matter which project we pick as the basis to invest most of our technical resources in, both projects will win:
- Even if one project is not chosen as the reference product user interface, it gains a hardware reference platform that community members can standardize on, and thus improve itself however they see fit.
- This is not the nineties. GNOME and KDE have had a healthy collaboration relationship for the better part of a decade now!
- We light up a competitive fire again in the hearts of contributors in both communities—and beyond. We can now fight for a platform we truly own, from the backend and middleware to the graphical user interface. No more proprietary UIs, no more “fork everything in middleware!”
- We will still provide support to developers and testers across the board, everybody is welcome.
From a higher perspective, we believe this campaign is vital to the relevance of Free Software and the viability of GNU+Linux (vs Android+Linux) beyond the desktop, and to protect ourselves from pervasive surveillance and data capitalism. We hope you will see it in this light as well.
Purism and KDE to Work Together on World’s First Truly Free Smartphone
Berlin/San Francisco, September 14, 2017 — Purism and KDE are partnering to help KDE adapt Plasma Mobile to Purism’s Librem 5 smartphone. Read more
Of Laptops and Phones
On Thursday, we have revealed our plans to build the world’s first encrypted, free/libre and open platform smartphone that will empower users to protect their digital identity in an increasingly unsafe mobile world. This naturally comes after having announced the general availability and inventory of our Librem 13 and Librem 15 laptops in June this year. Our newest line of laptops are undergoing shipping after a short delay related to finishing our coreboot porting work (look forward to our technical update on this subject, to be published this Tuesday).
In preparation for the phone project, in addition to our regular work we have spent 18 months of R&D to test hardware specifications and engage with one of the largest phone fabricators, and have now reached the point where we are launching the crowdfunding campaign to gauge demand for the initial fabrication order and add the features most important to users.
Enabling the next generation of cable-cutters, we are making the Librem 5 the first ever Matrix-powered smartphone, natively using end-to-end encrypted decentralized communication in its dialer and messaging app. We will also offer regular baseband functionality separated off from the CPU, and work towards the goal of freeing all components.
As increasing concern among Android and iOS users grow around personal data they give up through WiFi connections, application installations and basic location services, we hope to address those concerns by manufacturing phones that will operate with free/libre and open source software within the kernel, the operating system, and all software applications. We have built our reputation within the GNU/Linux community on creating laptops designed to specifically meet user concern about digital privacy, security, and software freedom.
Starting at $599—less than the cost of many popular smartphones—and featuring a bona fide GNU/Linux operating system (PureOS) instead of Android or iOS, the Librem 5 is intended to give users unprecedented control and security with features unavailable on any other mainstream smartphone, including:
- Make encrypted calls that mask your phone number
- Encrypt texts and emails
- Set up VPN services for enhanced web browsing protection
- Use the phone on any 2G/3G/4G, GSM, UMTS, or LTE network
- Edit or develop on the source code, which will be made publicly available, as a community-oriented FLOSS project (not “read-only open-source”)
- Run PureOS or most modern GNU+Linux distributions—not yet another Android-based phone!
- Enable hardware kill switches for the camera, microphone, WiFi/Bluetooth and baseband
Visit the Librem 5 crowdfunding campaign on our online shop to back the phone project!
Additionally, we will soon be posting a progress update on our laptop enablement coreboot work. Stay tuned for Youness’ technical report on Tuesday!
Purism Unveils Plans to Build Librem 5, the World’s First Encrypted, Open Smartphone Ecosystem Giving Users Complete Device Control
Security focused laptop maker launches crowdfunding campaign to gauge market demand and feature requests to begin fabrication
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., August 24, 2017 — Purism, the social purpose corporation which designs and produces popular privacy conscious hardware and software, has revealed its plans to build the world’s first encrypted, open platform smartphone that will empower users to protect their digital identity in an increasingly unsafe mobile world. After 18 months of R&D to test hardware specifications and engage with one of the largest phone fabricators, Purism is opening a self-hosted crowdfunding campaign to gauge demand for the initial fabrication order and add the features most important to users.
The plans to build the Librem 5 smartphone come on the tails of Purism opening general availability and inventory for its increasingly popular Librem laptop line in June 2017, which includes the Librem 13 and Librem 15 laptop models and has seen 35 percent average monthly growth in the past year.
Partnering with open source communications project Matrix, Purism is making the Librem 5 the first ever Matrix-powered smartphone, natively using end-to-end encrypted decentralized communication in its dialer and messaging app. Matrix is an open ecosystem for interoperable encrypted communication, supporting a rapidly growing community of over 2 million users for VoIP and Slack-style messaging.
As increasing concern among Android and iOS users grow around personal data they give up through WiFi connections, application installations and basic location services, Purism hopes to address those concerns by manufacturing phones that will operate with free/libre and open source software within the kernel, the operating system, and all software applications. Purism has built a strong reputation within the GNU/Linux community by delivering laptops designed to specifically meet user concern about digital privacy, chip-by-chip, line-by-line, to respect our common rights to privacy, security, and freedom.
Starting at $599—less than the cost of many popular smartphones—the Librem 5 will give users unprecedented control and security with features unavailable on any other mainstream smartphone, including:
- Make encrypted calls that mask your phone number
- Encrypt texts and emails
- Set up VPN services for enhanced web browsing protection
- Use the phone on any 2G/3G/4G, GSM, UMTS, or LTE network
- Edit or develop on the source code, which will be made publicly available
- Run PureOS or most GNU+Linux distributions
- Enable hardware kill switches for the camera, microphone, WiFi/Bluetooth and baseband
“I believe digital rights should mirror physical rights. Our Librem 5 phone will get humanity closer to that goal by giving people choices about how they want to protect or share their digital identity,” said Todd Weaver, founder & CEO at Purism.
“Purism has been doing genuine and important work around making truly free yet desirable laptops. The communities I work with would very much like to see the same philosophy replicated in a phone that runs a GNOME based stack where community members can participate in equal terms and that ensures respect for the users’ privacy and security,” said Alberto Ruiz, GNOME & Fedora Laptop Enablement. “While pulling this off is hard, Todd seems like someone who sincerely cares about these issues and has a great track record executing. I think the efforts of Purism deserve the support of the free software community.”
A veteran of successful crowdfunding campaigns with more than $2.5 million raised over the past two years, Purism is self-hosting the Librem 5 crowdfunding effort on their web site. Users can back the project here: https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5
About Purism
Purism is a Social Purpose Corporation devoted to bringing security, privacy, software freedom, and digital independence to everyone’s personal computing experience. With operations based in San Francisco (California) and around the world, Purism manufactures premium-quality laptops, tablets and phones, creating beautiful and powerful devices meant to protect users’ digital lives without requiring a compromise on ease of use. Purism designs and assembles its hardware in the United States, carefully selecting internationally sourced components to be privacy-respecting and fully Free-Software-compliant. Security and privacy-centric features come built-in with every product Purism makes, making security and privacy the simpler, logical choice for individuals and businesses.Media Contact
Marie Williams, Coderella / Purism+1 415-689-4029
pr@puri.sm
See also the Purism press room for additional tools and announcements.
Apple’s Collecting User Calls and Messages, and How Purism Avoids This Type of Threat
Another day, another corporate surveillance story; this time it is Apple who decides to secretly send users’ call history, as well as messages, to the “cloud” (which in this case is iCloud servers, owned and controlled by Apple).
This brings up a number of issues we have spoken about before, that users who buy Apple products think they own the device, until the realization—through near daily stories reporting on Apple undermining the privacy of user data—that Apple actually owns the iPhone device, and that iOS users are simply renting it as well as the software and services that run on it.
The Problem
Apple, like Google and Microsoft, controls the software that runs on your phone. Those companies will not relinquish control of their devices nor software because users continue to buy and finance their bad practices of exploiting users.
The Solution
Use, support, and buy products that are completely free software, where the source code is available, so that all the software on your device can be controlled by the user, not the software giants who undermine digital rights.
Purism ships PureOS with its products, which is completely free software. Customers can also elect to have Qubes preinstalled, or to install their own operating sytsem. Purism hopes to get PureOS officially endorsed by the Free Software Foundation very soon. Additionally, in the long term Purism is working towards its ambitious goal to fully free its hardware and get hardware certification by the FSF, becoming the first manufacturer of “brand new” high-performance laptops to achieve this.
Android’s Secret Backdoor, and How Purism’s Business Model Avoids This Type of Threat
Today we learned once more why utilizing pure free software where the source code is available is critical to protect users’ rights to privacy, security, freedom, and anonymity.
The New York Times points out that this latest security breach “shows how companies throughout the technology supply chain can compromise privacy, with or without the knowledge of manufacturers or customers.”
Let’s examine the problem and see what can be done about it. It’s not too late to stand up for your rights.
The Fundamental Problem
All phones and tablets on the market today suffer from the same problem: the code that operates those devices are a mystery to the users. In this specific case Google’s Android, but the same problem exists with Apple devices and Windows devices, where the operating system, software-updated firmware, and most software that runs on those devices do not have the source code available to verify that there are no backdoors sending your private data to unwanted third parties.
What this means is there is absolutely no way, for a user of Android, iOS, OSX, Windows, or any operating system that does not release all the source code, to guarantee he/she is not being illegally spied upon for nefarious reasons, corporate surveillance, government spying, and/or private data mining.
The tracking built into mobile devices is at every level imaginable. We need to create a better, digital rights respecting future for computing.
The Future of Computing
If we, as users, continue to morally and financially support Android, iOS, OSX, Windows or any other operating system that strip away the digital rights of users, we continue to advance a future where:
- users are controlled for profit;
- private data is mined for advertising revenue;
- governments spy on people;
- corporations capitalize on every user interaction;
- security breaches involve staggering amounts of personal data, with enormous consequences for individuals—even worse than what we’ve been seeing in recent years.
Every time you purchase a device from hardware companies that pre-install Android, iOS, OSX, Windows, and other nonfree operating systems, you are contributing to the erosion of your rights. Buying an HTC device benefits HTC, Google, the carrier, and all software companies that preinstall their privacy-stripping binaries. Similarly, buying Apple benefits Apple, the carrier, and all software apps preinstalled or even later installed.
The Solution
- Use a free software operating system, where the source code is released.
- Use hardware that allows you to run a completely freed operating system, where there is no mystery binaries, no private data delivered anywhere, and most importantly that you control.
- Support companies and organizations like Purism, and know that every penny of a purchase goes to benefit the future of computing and the digital rights for users. Make informed purchasing decisions and support hardware manufacturers that push Free Software’s agenda all the way through the supply chain.
The Upcoming Purism Phone and services infrastructure
Subscribe to our newsletter (simply send an email to announce-join@announce.puri.sm to subscribe automatically) or follow us (see website footer for social links), then you will be notified when Purism launches the first freedom, security, and privacy respecting phone.
Share your input on the upcoming Librem Phone’s features
We’re starting to zero-in on the hardware specifications that will define our first Librem Phone model, and we’d like your help to evaluate a few of the outstanding questions that come down to personal preferences.
Therefore, we are making an advisory survey for you to participate in. In the process, we want to:
- hear from you what hardware and specifications you’d like to see in a phone;
- both educate and learn from users about hardware and software choices that align with our beliefs;
- determine how much interest there is in us producing a Librem Phone
- collaborate and join forces with developers who will have a positive impact on the future of computing.
We know your time is precious, so we’ve made sure that filling this survey will take you merely a minute or so. Thanks!