<div dir="auto">Fun.</div><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: "Purism Announcements" <<a href="mailto:lists@puri.sm">lists@puri.sm</a>><br>Date: Feb 28, 2018 10:01<br>Subject: [Announce] The November-to-February mega news update<br>To: <<a href="mailto:announce@announce.puri.sm">announce@announce.puri.sm</a>><br>Cc: <br><br type="attribution">
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<p><img id="m_6204479901742390372purism-logo" alt="Purism logo" src="https://puri.sm/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/purism-logo-with-text-56px-300x63.png">
<h1>The <small>November-to-February</small> mega-update</h1>
<p>It has been a while since our last email update in November,
where we celebrated the success of the <a href="https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">Librem 5</a>
phone campaign (still available for preorder) and the full
disablement of the <a href="https://puri.sm/learn/intel-me/" target="_blank">Intel
Management Engine</a> on our laptops (we disable <i>and</i>
neutralize the Intel ME at the factory while fulfilling your
orders, see our <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/purism-librem-laptops-completely-disable-intel-management-engine/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">official
announcement</a> and <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/deep-dive-into-intel-me-disablement/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">technical
explanation</a>).</p>
<p>That doesn't mean we've been sitting on our hands since then,
however. In fact, we've made so much progress and had so many
good things to announce (we published <b>29 blog posts</b>)
that we've had little time left to write news digests, other
than the <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/happy-new-year-purism-goals-for-2018/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">year
in review and goals for 2018</a> summary blog post! So today's
email will be jam-packed full of news with a nice high-level
overview. We hope to bring you more announcements through email
soon, as we have more announcements coming in the next few days
and weeks. We have a <i>lot</i> of stuff in the pipeline this
spring.</p>
<hr>
<h2>PureOS</h2>
<a href="https://pureos.net" target="_blank"><img style="width:100%;border:1px solid gray" src="https://puri.sm/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/PureOS-2017-screenshot-for-press-releases-1024x576.jpg" alt="PureOS screenshot"></a>
<p>Since December, PureOS <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/pureos-apparmor-activated-by-default/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">now
features AppArmor activated by default</a>. AppArmor can be
thought of as “immunization” for your Operating System, using
the concept of “minimum privilege required” applied on a case by
case basis for each application profiled.</p>
<p>Near the end of the year, we were also delighted to see <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/fsf-endorses-pureos/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">PureOS
officially <b>endorsed by the Free Software Foundation</b></a>.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Librem laptops news</h2>
<a href="https://puri.sm/products/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank"><img style="width:100%;border:1px solid gray" src="https://puri.sm/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/IMG_5442.jpg" alt="Photo: Librem 13 with built-in TPM"></a>
<h3>New laptop inventory with TPM as a standard feature</h3>
<p>In November, we announced the availability of our Trusted
Platform Module (read the original announcement to <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/tpm-addon-for-librem-laptops/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">learn
what the TPM is about, and the features it can provide</a>),
as a $99 add-on for early adopters. The add-on fee was meant to
cover the additional parts & labor costs, as well as to
evaluate market demand for this feature. The resulting demand
has been overwhelmingly positive.</p>
<p>Thanks to the investment of those early TPM adopters who voted
with their wallets and gave us the necessary “business case” and
resources to work it out, we are extremely proud to announce
that <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/tpm-by-default-and-free-international-shipping/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">we
now include the TPM chip in all new Librem 13 and Librem 15
orders by default</a>, as a standard feature of our newest
hardware revision shipping out this month.</p>
<p>You may also like to read Kyle's blog posts on how the TPM can
help <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/measuring-the-intel-me-to-create-a-more-secure-computer/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">protect
against security threats emanating from the Intel Management
Engine</a> and how adding tamper-evident features allows us to
create the <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/librem-now-most-secure-laptop-under-full-user-with-tamper-evident-features/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">most
secure laptop</a>—under full customer control—ever made to
date.</p>
<h3>German keyboards and Free International Shipping</h3>
<p>We are now offering Free International Shipping on all orders.
This is essentially a permanent rebate of approximately 100 USD
to all new international customers!</p>
<p>Thanks to popular demand, we are now offering Librem 13 and
Librem 15 laptops with the backlit German keyboard layout. They
are available for purchase in our store now, and will begin
rolling out in mid-March.</p>
<p>Oh, and we're also offering a special <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/purisms-debian-developer-discount-program-announcement/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">discount
to Debian Developers</a>. </p>
<h3>Qubes OS users rejoice!</h3>
<img style="width:25%;float:right;padding-bottom:50px" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Coreboot_full.svg/300px-Coreboot_full.svg.png" alt="coreboot logo">
<p>We have <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/qubes4-fully-working-on-librem-laptops/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">added
IOMMU and TPM support</a> to our new coreboot 4.7 BIOS,
allowing the coreboot-enabled Librem laptops to install Qubes
4.0 RC4 with no warning messages and to run a Qubes 4 operating
system with working sys-net and sys-usb HVM VMs.</p>
<p>With our latest <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/february-2018-coreboot-update/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">coreboot
update available for download</a> or preloaded with new
shipping laptops, once the final release of Qubes OS 4.0 comes
out and we reconfirm it works as expected, we will offer it as
an option in place of Qubes OS 3.2 on our order page.</p>
<h3>Reverse-engineering the Intel FSP has begun</h3>
<p>Shortly before the end of the year, we published <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/primer-to-reverse-engineering-intel-fsp/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">a
primer guide to reverse engineering</a>, taking the Intel FSP
reverse engineering work we began as a case study. It is a
highly technical writeup for those of you who wish to help us
with the effort—or those who would like to better understand
what reverse-engineering is like, and why it takes a long time.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Librem phone news</h2>
<img style="width:100%;border:1px solid gray" src="https://puri.sm/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/02070003-update-1024x683.jpg" alt="Librem 5 i.MX 6 development test board connected to a
5.5-inch screen">
<p>Shortly after the end of the campaign, we started running <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/running-plasma-mobile-on-an-imx6-test-board/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">some
initial tests</a> to see how Plasma mobile runs on i.MX 6
development boards. We also announced the <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-ringtone-contest-winners/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">contest
winners for our ringtone contest</a> and <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/we-love-ethical-design/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">confessed
our love for the Ethical Design Manifesto</a>.</p>
<p>From November to January, we interviewed over a hundred
candidates who applied to work on developing the Librem 5 phone
with us. Through this process, we hired and onboarded a dozen
new developers, leading us to a position where we could begin
proper development of the phone platform starting in January. As
such, in January we began posting weekly about our progress,
alternating between product UI+UX design, hardware testing and
software development. Here are the updates up to now:</p>
<p> </p>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-progress-report-1/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">Tech/dev
update 1</a>: hiring update, i.MX 6 vs i.MX 8M SoC choices,
prototype displays</li>
<li><a href="https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-progress-report-2/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">Design
update 1</a>: hiring update, light vs dark theme,
convergence</li>
<li><a href="https://puri.sm/posts/gnome-and-kde-in-pureos-diversity-across-devices/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">Interlude</a>:
a reminder of why (and how) we can support both GNOME and KDE
communities with the Librem 5 project</li>
<li><a href="https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-progress-report-3/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">Tech/dev
update 2</a>: development path for a Wayland-only,
baggage-free mobile compositor and UI shell</li>
<li><a href="https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-progress-report-4/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">Design
update 2</a>: our take on convergence, base mobile design
principles, first look at the UI shell design</li>
<li><a href="https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-progress-report-5/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">Tech/dev
update 3</a>: 5.5" screen testing on i.MX 6 development
boards, first SMS successfully sent, and explanation of the
mobile industry's evolution from the chip design and economic
perspective</li>
<li><a href="https://puri.sm/posts/librem5-progress-report-6/?pk_campaign=2018-02-27-email" target="_blank">Design
update 3</a>: a UI shell design update regarding edge-based
gestures</li>
</ol>
<hr>
<h1>Events</h1>
<img style="width:100%;border:1px solid gray" src="https://puri.sm/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/photo_4-768x574.jpg" alt="Francois presenting at the Capitole du Libre" title="Francois presenting at the Capitole du Libre">
<p>In November and December we <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/le-capitole-du-libre-2017/" target="_blank">attended
le Capitole du Libre</a> and the <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/purism-attends-chaos-communication-congress/" target="_blank">Chaos
Communications Congress</a>. At the turn of February we <a href="https://puri.sm/posts/meet-us-at-fosdem-2018/" target="_blank">attended
FOSDEM</a> to answer the public's questions and discuss with
community members. The next community events where we will have
a presence is <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2018/" target="_blank">LibrePlanet</a>
(Boston, MA, USA) and <a href="http://www.jdll.org/jdll-presentation-generale/" target="_blank">JDLL</a>
(Lyon, France) near the end of March, <a href="https://guadec.org" target="_blank">GUADEC</a> in July (Almería, Spain),
and the <a href="https://www.debconf.org/" target="_blank">Debian Developer
Conference</a> in August (Hsinchu, Taiwan). We hope to meet
you there, and possibly at other events throughout the year.</p>
<hr>
<p>We will have lots of <i>very</i> exciting news coming in the
next few weeks,
which we're sure you'll be happy to share around you! The
contents of this email are CC-by-SA, so feel free to forward it
to who you want.</p>
<p>Thanking you for your continued support,<br>
— the Purism team <span style="color:#ccc">(feedback at
<a href="http://puri.sm" target="_blank">puri.sm</a>)</span></p>
<hr>
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