[SFS] Fwd: [Announce] Purism News Digest, March-April 2018

Tue May 15 13:29:54 MDT 2018

Cool stuff in the Librem World.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Purism Announcements <lists at puri.sm>
Date: Mon, May 14, 2018 at 7:36 AM
Subject: [Announce] Purism News Digest, March-April 2018
To: announce at announce.puri.sm

[image: Purism logo]

Here is a digest of our accomplishments since the last newsletter we sent
out at the end of February. In today's digest, we will cover *general
security*, *laptops operations*, and Librem 5 *phone R&D*.
------------------------------
Recent security R&D progress [image: Photo: GPG inventor Werner Koch]

Whether you are a cryptography afficionado interested in the nuts and bolts
of secure communications and data storage, or you're simply interested in
protecting your computer system against tampering or hijacking, you will
certainly be interested in this: we have been discussing with Werner Koch,
the creator of GPG, and will be working together to develop a new encrypted
communication standard
<https://puri.sm/posts/purism-collaboration-with-cryptography-expert-werner-koch/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>
for secure devices, on one hand supplementing the advancements we have made
to integrate Trammell Hudson's "Heads" security firmware
<https://puri.sm/posts/purism-integrates-heads-security-firmware-with-tpm-giving-full-control-and-digital-privacy-to-laptop-users/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>,
and on the other hand making secure communications easier to manage and
use. As part of this collaboration, we plan to work with Werner Koch's
smartcard designs and "Web Key Directory" distributed key management system.

Speaking of making security more convenient and appealing to a broader
audience, we have begun contributing user experience improvements to
Trammell Hudson's "Heads" firmware, starting with a dynamic text-based menu
system
<https://puri.sm/posts/making-heads-more-usable-with-menus/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>,
which we are continuing to improve towards a nicer graphical user
interface, as you can see in our demonstration of tampering detection
<https://puri.sm/posts/demonstrating-tamper-detection-with-heads/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>
.

We have also made some progress into reverse-engineering the Intel FSP, by
determining the true entry point of the FSP-S module.
Librem laptops news [image: Chart: Librem 13 orders vs shipments] [image:
Chart: Librem 15 orders vs shipments]
<https://puri.sm/posts/librem-laptop-orders-now-shipping-within-a-week/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>

At the beginning of the year, we have achieved a very significant milestone
in the life of our organisation, from the Inventory management and
logistics standpoint. The ability to fulfill orders within 5 business days
remains the goal, thanks to the stock of Librem 13 and Librem 15 laptops we
have available to ship from inventory. Indeed, as our early supporters
throughout the years have demonstrated incredible patience to wait for
their preorders to arrive on their doorstep, we are deeply grateful for
their investment that now allows us to fulfill new orders in merely a few
days instead of months (read more…
<https://puri.sm/posts/librem-laptop-orders-now-shipping-within-a-week/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>
)

We have been very pleased to find out about a glowing review
<https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/review-librem-13v2> by the
legendary *Linux
Journal* regarding our flagship laptop, the Librem 13, that concluded in
these terms: *“This computer is lightning fast, and it’s easily the best
laptop I’ve ever owned. More than anything, I’m glad this is a system I
purchased and not a “review copy”, so I don’t have to send it back!”*

Note that for the whole month of May, we are having a sale
<https://puri.sm/posts/may-2018-laptop-sale-begins/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>
for both the Librem 13 and the Librem 15.
Librem phone news A new platform for the Ubuntu Touch project

The UBports foundation, governing the community-run Ubuntu Touch project,
have reached out to partner with Purism in leveraging the Librem 5 phone as
a new Android-free hardware and middleware platform for Ubuntu Touch,
becoming the first device where Ubuntu Touch will be able to run on a
traditional GNU/Linux technological stack.
[image: Photo: mockup of Librem 5 hardware with the Ubuntu Touch OS]
<https://puri.sm/posts/ubports-ubuntu-touch-on-librem5-collaboration/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>

While the Librem 5 will ship with Free Software Foundation-endorsed
<https://puri.sm/posts/fsf-endorses-pureos/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>
PureOS by default, utilizing GNOME technology across all devices, Purism
will support customers who want to easily install Ubuntu Touch offering
great diversity for users around the world. In addition to UBports, Purism
is working with GNOME and supporting KDE Plasma Mobile, now rounding the
user choices to three options come 2019 when the Librem 5 will be shipping
to customers: PureOS, PureOS with KDE's Plasma Mobile, and Ubuntu Touch.

Read more in the official announcement
<https://puri.sm/posts/ubports-ubuntu-touch-on-librem5-collaboration/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>
.
News from the Purism phone R&D team

Here are recent status updates from our internal phone team. More are on
the way as the summer begins!
[image: Librem 5 i.MX 6 development test board connected to a 5.5-inch
screen]

   1. The *Librem 5* puzzle pieces have started coming together
   <https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-progress-report-7/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>:
   a few words on our Wayland compositor and UI shell, adaptive (responsive)
   GTK+ applications to enable convergence between small and big screens,
   input methods, documentation, initial i.MX 8M hardware evaluation, etc.
   2. Design report #4
   <https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-progress-report-8/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>:
   symbiotic applications, or the general philosophy guiding the need for
   applications to interact with each other in harmony instead of competing
   for your attention
   3. Initial Plasma Mobile enablement on Librem 5 i.MX 6 test boards
   <https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-progress-report-9/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>
   4. Initial Developer Documentation for the Librem 5 Phone Platform
   <https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-progress-report-10/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>
   5. Design report #5
   <https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-progress-report-11/?pk_campaign=2018-05-14-email>:
   updates on the phone's case design and the UI shell roadmap

Events [image: exhibiting at LibrePlanet 2018]

At the end of March we sponsored and attended the LibrePlanet conference.
The next community events where we aim to have a presence include GUADEC
<https://guadec.org> in July (Almería, Spain), the Debian Developer
Conference <https://www.debconf.org/> in August (Hsinchu, Taiwan) and
Akademy <https://akademy.kde.org/2018> in August (Vienna, Austria). We hope
to meet you there, and possibly at other events throughout the year as we
expand our outreach efforts.
------------------------------

Thanking you for your continued support,
— the Purism team (feedback at puri.sm)
------------------------------

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