Slashdot Mirror
Purism Offers Free (as in Freedom) Laptops (Video)
Purism uses its own OS, PureOS, which is a Debian derivative by way of Ubuntu and other members of the Debian-derivative family, but with no taint of proprietary code. Now imagine all the binaries stripped out of the Linux kernel, making it closer to the FSF ideal of a 100% free operating system than the Linux kernel in use almost everywhere else.
They're still using a proprietary BIOS, but have people working on a Free one. The main thing, though, is that Purism is working to give you all the privacy and freedom they can -- with more coming as they keep working to replace proprietary bits of the OS, BIOS, and hardware drivers with Free Software. Best of all, even if you don't need a new laptop right now, you can download PureOS and run it on any compatible hardware you already own.
They're still using a proprietary BIOS, but have people working on a Free one. The main thing, though, is that Purism is working to give you all the privacy and freedom they can -- with more coming as they keep working to replace proprietary bits of the OS, BIOS, and hardware drivers with Free Software. Best of all, even if you don't need a new laptop right now, you can download PureOS and run it on any compatible hardware you already own.
What the hell is free as in freedom? Freedom of use? Freedom of options? and no, I did not RTFA or WTFV
I have one of these. I am confident in knowing that I am free of malware and corporate interests. I am...pure...just like the name says!
Flash video?? Too bad... am I wrong or does Slashdot really not support HTML5 video yet?
Could someone post a valid URL?
https://purihm/pureos/
doesn't seem to work.
Don't we already have Trisquel for those who want a "free as in freedom, free as in free from working" distro?
I know, buy a different laptop. Buy an otherwise totally unnecessary and port-wasting, marginal-power-use-increasing, external adaptor with politically correct firmware, because, freedom.
Sticking with politically incorrect, it-just-works, Linux Mint.
Gnu can bite me.
Not even a 'free' BIOS can prevent compromised microcode.
I dare you.
So besides the mild irony of a Flash Video (and I'm sure Flash is not allowed on PureOS) the URL for the OS has both a typo AND a missing period. It's https://puri.sm/pureos/
And people have shown over and over that Free as in Speech takes a back seat to actually getting things done. I'm glad for the people releasing this, I hope they have fun, but it will be a small circle of people patting each other on the back as everyone else goes to mobile.
Will PureOS use systemD?
If it was based on Devuan GNU/Linux rather than Debian SystemD/Linux, then it would be a bit more pure ...
Todd, the founder of Purism, had defrauded hundreds of people out of hard earned money. He's pulled numerous scams and is STILL bilking people who don't know better out of money. Despite the fact that numerous respectable developers and other leaders in the Linux and free software community pointing this out the message hasn't gotten through. He's a fraud! His claims are nothing more than nonsensical and contradictory. He's a back-peddling thief.
Todd is what you would call a confidence king. This is where someone convinces you there doing something good and takes your money without delivering on there promises. Purism does not have the Free Software Foundation's endorsement, nor can he get it. There are critical proprietary pieces that can't be freed in modern Intel/AMD computers. Intel is licensing pieces from a third party which it does not have the rights to free.
The 500 or so computers Todd has arranged to have manufactured is nowhere near enough to get Intel to cooperate. A sales rep does not have the authority to release code and this is the extent of Todds talks with Intel. Google with its millions of Chromebooks has been unable to get this code released. The Coreboot developers have stated this much numerous times:
http://blogs.coreboot.org/blog/2015/02/23/the-truth-about-purism-why-librem-is-not-the-same-as-libre/
Despite the claims Todd did not ship the Librem 15 with CoreBoot (which itself isn't free) and if he had it would not have made the laptop any more free as it would merely have been a payload. The reality is the Librem 15 shipped with a stock proprietary AMI BIOS. If it were even possible to free the BIOS Todd would have needed to use LibreBoot. Not CoreBoot.
He's badmouthing other companies who actually have pushed things forward, specifically ThinkPenguin, Gluglug, and others who have worked with companies to free chipsets, free coreboot, actually begin to design laptops, and not just building off stock reference designs. These companies have actual products out the door which are Respect Your Freedom certified. Something that Todds laptop will never be. It was originally so badly designed that he was including chipsets that only had proprietary graphics driver support. The NVIDIA graphics chip he was including had zero (not even rudimentary) support from the free nouveau driver, not even had he gone with the prior version of the chip!
Here are some of the stories from leading coreboot developers and other free software activists:
Purism Librem Laptops Remain Blobbed Up, Less Than Interesting
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Purism-Librem-Still-Blobbed
Libreboot exposes the purism librem as fraud
http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3ew6pz/libreboot_exposes_the_purism_librem_as_fraud/
The truth about Purism: Why Librem is not the same as libre
http://blogs.coreboot.org/blog/2015/02/23/the-truth-about-purism-why-librem-is-not-the-same-as-libre/
Pure OS link points to https://purihm/pureos/ which gives me a "Server not found", in the https://puri.sm/ the link goes to https://puri.sm/pureos/
There are a number of distros that eschew everything non-free. The FSF keeps a list: https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html. They also have a "Respects Your Freedom" certification (https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom), given to Gluglug (http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/), which uses Libreboot (http://libreboot.org/) to replace the proprietary BIOS.
Your views may differ but people that insist on ideological purity in the real world give me the heebeegeebees. They usually produce little aside from atrocities, and nearly 2k for a somewhat lowend laptop sure sounds like that.
Ahh, brushed aluminum laptops. Copying Macs is such a waste of tiem and effort. Almost everybody does this badly. I'm amazed that no one bothers to copy the older, popular Thinkpads, which are no longer available new.
Anyone who knows the most basic thing about how chips firmware and software work will see straight through this so not for the tech crowd right?
I don't buy it. Purism and PRISM sounds too much alike to be a coincidence. Nice try NSA...
Satisfy RMS
I'm sick of these bastards ripping us off. Rubén Rodríguez has spent significant amount of time over the years to produce a distribution for which he's gotten little to no credit for and Todd comes in, grabs all this publicity, and it's nothing more than a re-compile with slightly different logos. Just cut it out.
A _lot_ less.
"Purism uses its own OS, PureOS, which is a Debian derivative"
So it is another piece of GNU/Linux OS trash, greeeaaattt... because you know, we do not have enough of that Linux-based garbage, so we need more.
What the hell does that mean?
The most common statement about freedom is that "freedom isn't free".
Can we stop posting links with the titles "free as in beer" and "free as in freedom", both of which aren't free.
I.e. the integrated backdoor and control system desired by the NSA and others?
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
It's been a while since I used Debian but I remember stock debian installs already pretty much fitting this description. You had to turn on the contrib and non-free apt sources to get anything proprietary. Has this changed?
So, it cust money and forces corporate agenda software down you throat... Just what is free about this? That you are free to opt out?
Linux is, and always will be, a hobbyist OS. People really need to stop taking shortcuts and just develop their own OS (minuet OS, BeOS, etc.) instead of beating a dead horse. Pure OS is just another sad Linux clone.
for what amounts to a ginormous ultrabook.
personally i'd be happier with a better specced sager np7338 or whatever the current model is for $1k
Coreboot / Depthcharge source for Pixel 2015:
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/coreboot/+/firmware-samus-6300.B
embedded controller source:
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/ec/+/master
These guys are a lot of doublespeak; although they proclaim freedom, they appear to be tied into just about every aspect of the global fascist movement.
We are working hard to free the lower level, here is our roadmap: https://puri.sm/road-to-fsf-ry... Thanks for all the support so far! You can email me, and I will respond: todd@puri.sm Thanks!
Yes. You should sign up again. It will work this time, for sure. Make sure to complete ALL the offers. *nods*
"So long and thanks for all the fish."