Librem

Librem is a line of computers manufactured by Purism, SPC featuring free (libre) hardware and software.[1][2] The laptop line is designed to protect privacy and freedom by providing no non-free (proprietary) software in the operating system or kernel,[3][4][5][6] avoiding the Intel Active Management Technology,[7] and gradually freeing and securing firmware.[8][9] Librem laptops feature hardware kill switches for the microphone, webcam, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi,[1][2] and can be purchased air gapped.

Models

Librem 13 and 15 laptops

As of March 2018, Purism had two laptop models in production, the Librem 13 (version 2) and Librem 15 (version 3).[2] Purism had already announced in December 2016 it would be preparing to move from a build to order production approach to a "ship from inventory" model with the new batches of Librem 13 and 15.[10]

Librem 11 tablet

A convertible tablet-to-laptop model, the Librem 11, was under development as of March 2018[2][11] and available for preorder.[12]

Librem 5 smartphone

In 2017, Purism started a crowdfunding campaign for Librem 5, a smartphone aimed not only to run purely on the free software provided in PureOS, but to "[focus] on security by design and privacy protection by default". Purism claimed that the phone would become "the world's first ever IP-native mobile handset, using end-to-end encrypted decentralized communication."[13] Purism cooperated with KDE and GNOME in its development of Librem 5.[14]

Plans for security on the Librem 5 include separation of the CPU from the baseband processor, which according to Linux Magazine would make Librem 5 unique in comparison to other mobile phones.[14] Hardware kill switches for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth communication and the phone's camera, microphone, and baseband processor are also planned.[14]

The default operating system planned for Librem 5 is Purism's PureOS, a Debian GNU/Linux derivative, with a choice of either GNOME or KDE Plasma Mobile as the desktop environments.[14] Ubuntu Touch is also planned as a standard option for the operating system of Librem 5.[15]

Purism announced on 4 September 2018 that the launch date of Librem 5 would be April 2019, later than initially planned, because of two hardware bugs and the Europe/North America holiday season.[16] The two "silicon bugs" in components provided by NXP Semiconductors caused extreme battery draining, discharging the phone in about an hour. Development kits for software developers were planned for release in October 2018, mostly unaffected by the bug, since developers would normally connect the device to a mains power outlet rather than rely on the phone battery.[16]

Operating system

Initially planning to preload its Librem laptops with the Trisquel operating system,[17][18] Purism eventually moved off the Trisquel platform to rebase onto Debian for the 2.0 release of its PureOS Linux operating system.[19] As an alternative to PureOS, Librem laptops were originally announced as purchasable with Qubes preloaded,[20] but in July, 2017 Librem announced that Qubes was no longer an option for new orders.[21] In December 2017 the Free Software Foundation added PureOS to its list of endorsed GNU/Linux distributions.[22][23]

BIOS

In 2015, Purism began research to port the Librem 13 to coreboot[24][25][26] but the effort was initially stalled. By the end of the year, a coreboot developer completed an initial port of the Librem 13 and submitted it for review.[27] In December 2016, hardware enablement developer Youness Alaoui joined Purism and was tasked to complete the coreboot port for the original Librem 13 and prepare a port for the second revision of the device.[28] Since summer 2017, new Librem laptops are shipped with coreboot as their standard BIOS, while some older models can be updated.[29]

References

  1. 1 2 Miller, Paul; Krales, Amelia Holowaty (2017-08-23). "Librem 13 laptop review: physical security for the paranoid". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2018-08-28. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Wallen, Jack (2018-03-26). "Purism Librem 13 review: This Linux-based laptop takes your privacy to the next level". TechRepublic. Archived from the original on 2018-08-28. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
  3. ↑ Kyle Rankin. "Purism Librem 15 Review". Linux Journal. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  4. ↑ IEEE Consumer Electronics, Vol 5, Number 1, 2016 January, "Veillance Integrity by Design A new mantra for CE devices and services", pp. 33-143, By Steve Mann
  5. ↑ Purism Aims To Build A Philosophically Pure Laptop, TechCrunch, Jan 23, 2015 by John Biggs (@johnbiggs)
  6. ↑ Bridgwater, Adrian (2015-01-26). "Purism Librem: 100% open source crowdsourced 'high-end' laptop". Computer Weekly. Retrieved 2017-04-15.
  7. ↑ Armasu, Lucian (2016-08-29). "Purism Explains Why It Avoids Intel's AMT And Networking Cards For Its Privacy-Focused 'Librem' Notebooks". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved 2017-04-15.
  8. ↑ Ung, Gordon. "Purism discovered how to make open-source software laptops even more open". PCWorld. Retrieved 2017-04-15.
  9. ↑ Armasu, Lucian (2017-04-12). "Purism Laptops To Use 'Heads' Firmware To Protect Against Rootkits, Tampering". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved 2017-04-15.
  10. ↑ Weaver, Todd (2016-12-15). "Growing to Ship from Inventory in 2017". puri.sm. Retrieved 2017-04-15.
  11. ↑ Baldwin, Roberto (2016-05-19). "Purism expands its line of privacy-focused devices to include a 2-in-1". Engadget. Retrieved 2017-04-15.
  12. ↑ "Purism Librem models comparison page". Purism. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  13. ↑ Holwerda, Thom (2017-08-24). "Librem 5: a security and privacy focused GNU/Linux smartphone". OSNews. Archived from the original on 2018-08-28. Retrieved 2018-08-29.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Byfield, Bruce (2018). "Librem 5 and the Challenge of the Free Phone". Linux Magazine. Archived from the original on 2018-08-28. Retrieved 2018-08-29.
  15. ↑ Verma, Ardash (2018-04-25). "Open Source Smartphone Librem 5 Will Officially Support Ubuntu Touch". Fossbytes. Archived from the original on 2018-08-28. Retrieved 2018-08-29.
  16. 1 2 Faerber, Nicole (2018-09-04). "Progress update from the Librem 5 hardware department". Purism, SPC. Archived from the original on 2018-10-13. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  17. ↑ Linder, Brad (2014-11-19). "Purism hopes to crowdfund a high-end, open source laptop". Liliputing. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
  18. ↑ Rahl, Jon (2015-05-17). "Production and Shipping Update". puri.sm. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
  19. ↑ Weaver, Todd (2015-09-18). "Weekly Update on Librem Production 2015-09-18". puri.sm. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
  20. ↑ Porup, J. M. (2015-12-14). "Qubes OS will ship pre-installed on Purism's security-focused Librem 13 laptop". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
  21. ↑ Purism (2017-07-04). "A shipping update for Qubes-related orders".
  22. ↑ FSF adds PureOS to list of endorsed GNU/Linux distributions, Free Software Foundation
  23. ↑ OpenNews: Фонд СПО признал PureOS полностью свободным дистрибутивом, OpenNET (in Russian)
  24. ↑ Moberg, Larry (2015-07-20). "Freeing the BIOS: Memory Init". puri.sm. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
  25. ↑ Moberg, Larry (2015-08-14). "2015-08-14: Librem 13: Weekly BIOS Progress Update". puri.sm. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
  26. ↑ Moberg, Larry (2015-08-21). "2015-08-21 Librem 13: Weekly BIOS Progress Update". puri.sm. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
  27. ↑ Laurie, Duncan (2015-12-22). "Gerrit Code Review". review.coreboot.org. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
  28. ↑ Alaoui, Youness (2017-01-05). "Diving back into coreboot development". puri.sm. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
  29. ↑ "Downloading and installing coreboot on Purism Librem devices – Purism". puri.sm. Retrieved 2018-04-02.


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