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First Librem 5 Smartphones are Shipping

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  • First Librem 5 Smartphones are Shipping

    The first Librem 5 smartphones roll off the assembly line and ship to customers.

    Earlier this month, Purism announced an iterative, transparent shipping schedule for the highly anticipated Librem 5, security and privacy focused smartphone. Today’s shipment marks the beginning of that process, with more Librem 5s to ship in the coming shipment batches.

    “This is a big moment,” stated Todd Weaver, founder and CEO of Purism. “Not just for us as a company, but for everyone concerned about issues of privacy, security, and user freedom. The Librem 5 represents years of work, building the software and hardware required to make this phone a reality.”

    Everyone who pre-ordered the Librem 5 smartphone will be receiving an email letting them know which shipping batch — and what shipping date window — they are scheduled for, before we prepare each batch for shipment. You can find more details in the batch shipping announcement and the FAQ.

  • Librem 5, the $699 Linux Phone, Has Started Shipping to Backers

    “The Librem 5 represents years of work, building the software and hardware required to make this phone a reality,” Todd Weaver, founder and CEO of Purism, is quoted as saying.

    The Librem 5 was successfully funded back in 2017, raising just over $2.1 million in two months.

    While the device was initially expected to ship in late 2018 the release was later pushed back to April 2019, then “Q3 2019”.

    Today the handset finally begins shipping — though not to everyone…

  • First Librem 5 Linux Phones Start Shipping to Customers Around the World

    Purism, the hardware manufacturer known for their security and privacy focused Linux laptops, announced that the new Librem 5 Linux phone has started shipping to customers around the world.
    Earlier this month, Purism announced their shipping plans for the Librem 5 Linux smartphone, which has been in development since October 2017. Two years later, the Librem 5 phones will finally start ship to customers who pre-ordered them, in batches, until Q4 2020. The first batch, will start shipping from September 24th until October 22nd.

    Librem 5 promises to be the very first smartphone on the market that focuses only on security and privacy by not tracking, nor exploiting your digital life. It features hardware encryption, layered security protection, hardware kill switches, decentralized and IP-native communication, and user controlled source code.

    "This is a big moment," stated Todd Weaver, founder and CEO of Purism. "Not just for us as a company, but for everyone concerned about issues of privacy, security, and user freedom. The Librem 5 represents years of work, building the software and hardware required to make this phone a reality."

  • Purism Starts Shipping The First Librem 5 Smartphones

    In squeezing to shipping in Q3, Purism announced today their first batch of Librem 5 Linux smartphones are beginning to ship. In the process, we see the first actual photos of the Librem 5.

    As announced at the start of September, Purism annouced they would begin shipping the Librem 5 phone in varying batches. This first batch of phones shipping have an individually milled case, loose fit of components, varying alignment, and unfinished switch caps. Or basically, alpha/beta quality. Over the months/quarters ahead, the quality of this privacy-minded Linux smartphone will continue to be revised.

Purism Librem 5 privacy-focused Linux phone has started shipping

  • Purism Librem 5 privacy-focused Linux phone has started shipping

    While some (the author included) see the Linux-based OS as the Purism Librem 5’s primary feature, it really goes hand in hand with the security and privacy focus of both the smartphone and the company itself. After all, if you are going to make those the pillars of the phone, you’ll have to forego most of the big mobile platforms, including the mostly open source Android, and put control in the hands of the users themselves.

    The Librem 5 was off to a rough start after being successfully funded on Purism’s own crowdfunding platform. Its fate was intricately tied not only to the availability of NXP’s i.MX 8 chip but to the result of Qualcomm’s bid to buy NXP. If that pushed through, there was a chance that the i.MX 8 would no longer be the open source friendly chipset Purism hoped it would be.

    After almost a year of delays, the first batch of Librem 5 phones is finally shipping to early backers. As reported before, Purism is taking a rather unconventional strategy in rolling out the phones in batches with each batch getting a more refined assembly or software out of the box. Purism clarifies, however, that all batches have the complete package and that the differences in production is mostly aesthetic or internal. All of them, for example, have physical switches to kill off radios.

Purism & Linux 5.3

  • Purism & Linux 5.3

    Following up on our report for Linux 5.2, here’s a list of Purism’s contributions for the 5.3 cycle Linux kernel. We contributed 12 patches, which include the Librem 5 devkit device tree and a driver for the i.MX8MQs D-PHY.

Purism starts shipping the Librem 5 smartphone

  • Purism starts shipping the Librem 5 smartphone (Linux-based, privacy-focused phone)

    Purism, a company best known for selling laptops that run free and open source, Linux-based software, is now shipping its first smartphone.

    The Purism Librem 5 phone has been under development for several years, and it’s still a bit of a work in progress. The first set of phones to ship are part of the “Aspen” batch, and include an early version of the case design and early versions of Purism’s core apps.

    Purism plans to address the latter issue with regular software updates. But folks who want more polished hardware will likely have to wait for a future batch — the roadmap calls for four more batches before the third quarter of 2020, with next-gen hardware sporting a new processor and design later next year.

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