Purism
Security & Privacy
Laptops & PCs
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Funding ends on Jan 31, 2015 at 03:59 PM PST.
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The Purism Librem 15 is the first high-end laptop in the world that ships without mystery software in the kernel, operating system, or any software applications. Every other consumer-grade laptop you can purchase comes with an operating system that includes suspect, proprietary software, and there’s no way for you to know what that software does.
The reality is that unless every aspect of your kernel, operating system, and software applications are free/libre and open source, there is no way to know that your computer is truly working in your best interest. Purism is the first to solve this problem.
| Description | BIOS Freed | Kernel Freed | OS Freed | Software Freed | Promotes Freedom | Promotes Privacy† | Supports Freedom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACER | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| AAPLE | No | No | Partial* | No | No | No | No |
| DELL | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| FUJITSU | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Almost‡ | No | No | No | Partial* | No | Partial* | |
| HP | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| IBM | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| MICROSOFT | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| LENOVO | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| PURISM | Almost‡ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| TOSHIBA | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
*Source code is released under free licenses, but other freedom and privacy restricting features exist.
†Promotes privacy by providing source code under a free license, and installing privacy supporting software by default.
‡AMD includes an AGESA binary into the BIOS, Intel includes an FSP binary into the BIOS (Purism is working to have that binary freed).
| Description | BIOS Freed | Kernel Freed | OS Freed | Apps Freed | Promotes Freedom | Promotes Privacy† | Supports Freedom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IOS | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| MACOS | No | No | Partial* | No | No | No | No |
| CHROME OS | Almost‡ | No | Partial* | No | No | No | Partial* |
| ANDROID | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| WINDOWS | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| PURISM OS | Almost‡ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
*Source code is released under free/libre licenses, but other freedom and privacy restricting features exist.
†Promotes privacy by providing source code under a free/libre license, and installing privacy supporting software by default.
‡AMD includes an AGESA binary into the BIOS, Intel includes an FSP binary into the BIOS (Purism is working to have that binary freed).
§Trisquel GNU/Linux based distribution.
There are many laptops that run Linux. The Librem 15 laptop is better in two main ways:
pre-installed devices include binary blobs in the Linux kernel. 2. The Librem 15 is the first concrete step toward changing computer manufacturing in a fundamental way. We believe in users’ rights, and will continue to push upstream to free the BIOS and component firmware.
All other companies, when they sit down at the negotiation table, negotiate first for price, mean time between failure, quality, warranty, availability, then revisit price again. We on the other hand negotiate for users’ rights to free software, then quality, then price. Most manufacturers just need to be made aware that it matters to users, and then we get into how best to make that happen. This is where you come in, by showing you support Purism, that gives us the leverage we need to push upstream to the manufacturers of component parts. We are here to fight for your rights - please help us do that by supporting this campaign!
The Librem 15 is the first high-end laptop where you are in control and have complete visibility into the kernel, the operating system, and all software. Meticulously designed chip by chip to work with free/libre and open source software, the Librem reinstates your rights to freedom and privacy. We hand selected the best hardware that still honors our strict beliefs:
Purism is manufacturing the motherboard, and screen printing the keyboard. Purism is sourcing the case, daughter cards, memory, drives, battery, camera, and screen.
While we have our prototypes, they are prototypes for the sole purpose of testing and modifying, so please send any comments, concerns, or requests through our campaign question form near the bottom of this page. We have already made modifications based on user feedback, so it is all welcome!
Once we are actually shipping product in September, we will also offer replacement and upgrade parts for sale.
As shown in the video above, the HDD/SSD, RAM, wireless chipset, and CD/DVD ROM are all accessible after unscrewing the bottom of the case and unscrewing the battery. All these components are easily replaceable.
The Librem 15 keyboard comes in a wide variety of language layouts. See the "keyboard" drop-down menu in any of the pledge levels to the right for a full listing of the available languages.
The Librem 15 laptop comes with the power adapter pictured below. As input, the power adapter takes up to 1.6A at 100-240V and 50-60Hz. As output, the power adapter provides up to 3.4A at 19V. The power adapter plug is available in EU, UK, and US styles and can be easily swapped out by the end user.
If this campaign to create the Librem 15 laptop is successful, our second product will be the Librem 13, a 13" model very similar to the Librem 15, but without the second drive bay, and of course smaller. We already have a first prototype of the Librem 13, but our focus for now is on first succeeding with the Librem 15. For those of you who want a 13" laptop, but still want to support us in getting off the ground, please back this campaign by making a pledge for the $500 Librem Coupon.
Every Librem 15 laptop comes with a company-backed, two-year parts and labor warranty. We currently have one warranty facility in South San Francisco, however we are also considering and pursuing distribution and warranty repair within certain other countries.
Bundled with the fully free/libre, no mystery software Trisquel GNU/Linux operating system, with free/libre professional quality web browser, email, graphics, drawing, word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, and media software, users can easily replace their existing computer. Since it is a GNU-based distribution, users can add hundreds of thousands of free/libre and open source applications easily.
Painstakingly selecting every single component that goes into the Librem 15 laptop, Purism ensures they all will operate with free/libre and open source software within the kernel, the operating system, and all software applications.
Since we are using Trisquel GNU/Linux, which is the strictest of distributions and strips all binary blobs from the Linux kernel, you can easily install anything less strict, such as Debian and Ubuntu. We have not yet tried installing a non-GNU/Linux-based operating system.
Though the bootloader, Linux kernel, GNU OS, and all software applications are completely free/libre software without any binary blobs, the BIOS does use coreboot, which includes a binary from Intel, called FSP. Here is a diagram that summarizes which components are free/libre and which aren’t.
While the BIOS is not yet free, the Librem 15 will be the first laptop ever manufactured to ship a modern Intel CPU fused to run unsigned BIOS code, allowing for a future where free software can replace the proprietary, digitally signed BIOS binaries. This marks one of the largest hurdles to a laptop that runs 100% free software and firmware. Recognizing the importance of this critical step toward consumer freedom, Dr. Richard M. Stallman, president of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), states:
"Getting rid of the signature checking is an important step. While it doesn’t give us free code for the firmware, it means that users will really have control of the firmware once we get free code for it." - Dr. Richard M. Stallman
In addition to enabling as above the development of free BIOS firmware, we are also working with Intel to allow us to scrub, release, and maintain the source for the FSP, but haven’t finalized that yet. We are devoted to freeing this binary. You can read here about the current state of our efforts to free the BIOS.
There are also hardware components, like the HD or SSD, that are flashable, and therefore upgradeable, but that currently run firmware that is not yet freed. We are working to get freed versions of this firmware! Being the first manufacturer to care about freedom and privacy, we are making a lot of progress upstream.
Purism has the final prototypes, and with your help can begin production at full scale in our South San Francisco facility. The first batch will consist of 500 laptops.
April 2015. This is because we have to finalize our motherboard design, manufacture a small run, then order the components, assemble, load the software and ship to you. The manufacturing of the motherboard alone is an 8- to 12-week turn around.
All laptops include free US domestic shipping. We also ship outside the US anywhere in the world for a flat $80 international shipping surcharge. Any applicable customs and duties are not included in the price and are the responsibility of the recipient.
This is an all-or-nothing scenario - either we make our funding goal and move forward or we miss our funding goal, no credit cards are charged, and the project halts.
There are three tiers of pricing available as a special offer only during this crowdfunding campaign - earliest bird, earlier bird, and early bird. The tiers are designed to offer a greater discount to the earliest adopters (earliest bird) so the price and quantity available is the only difference between the tiers: once the tier is filled, the next tier of pricing and quantity is used. These pricing tiers offer a significant discount over the planned retail pricing, which is also available as part of the campaign in case the early tiers fill up completely.
The Librem Coupon is a \$500 coupon for any Librem laptop produced in the next two years, and it costs only \$475. The coupon is intended to allow people to start paying for their Librem and get a little extra help in doing so. There is a purchase limit of one per customer, and coupons cannot be combined.
We have very big plans, we believe in free software and our goal is to make free software the default for users. We want average computer users to consider the Librem 15 an easy alternative to proprietary systems that do not respect their freedoms. After the Librem 15, we want to produce a Librem 13 (a 13” model), then longer term move into tablets, and phones, where there are no viable free software alternatives for users.
Once we have placed our Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) order, which is what our funding goal is, we will be offering the Librem 15 for sale, with a standard turnaround to users of about 1 to 2 weeks.
It will show that there is not enough user support to want a company to fight for free software bundled with hardware right now, therefore, we would not be able to manufacture our motherboard, and therefore will not receive any funds from any backers. Let’s not make that happen, help us reach our goal, so we can do great things with hardware.
We understand that credit cards aren’t for everyone. If you cannot or do not want to pay by credit card, contact orders@crowdsupply.com to make arrangements for alternative forms of payment.
Purism is devoted, at its heart and soul, to providing the highest quality hardware available, that utilizes free/libre software, ensuring the rights of freedom, privacy, and control of your computing. Purism was founded by Todd Weaver, a free/libre software advocate since 1994, formerly the CTO of Impart Media Group, and CEO of ivi, Inc. Todd has more than 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, using, installing, and promoting free/libre and open source software.
Purism is the only company who, at its core, does everything to respect your freedom and your privacy. We hand select individual chips that will work with free and open source software, we provide the means and transparency into the BIOS3, the kernel, the operating system, and all software applications. We install free and open source promoting software by default, making sure you retain your freedom and privacy during every step of your computing.
Here is a table that shows how much Purism does above and beyond any other hardware manufacturer.
If you’d rather view top competitors by their belief system, here they are:
"a portable PC that combines modern parts (such as a 3.4GHz Core i7 and an optional 4K display) with software that’s accessible from head to toe."
"It’s a fascinating product and should be really cool when it all comes together."
"Up until this point there were few options for laptops that ran purely Free Software, much less any that had modern hardware and a modern look and feel."
"This is a serious, slick Linux notebook, not a bit of kit for hobbyist hackers."
"This is a laptop for serious enthusiasts of free and open software who want to have full access to as much of the software running on their system as possible."
"Librem 15: Sexy Open Source Laptop"
"a free, open source laptop that doesn’t suck"
"The Librem laptop is designed to run on truly free software only"
"The Librem 15 open source laptop has designed to offer users a high end experience"
"a laptop that’s as open source friendly as it is technically feasible"
"Purism's laptop is almost 100 percent open source and features preinstalled privacy protection software"
"Purism discovered how to make open-source software laptops even more open"
"There are lots of Linux laptops, but none that have the Free Software Foundation’s blessings. That may change."
"Crowdsourcing Innovation: Todd Weaver, Purism"
"for those who pursue technology free of closed software and firmware, its creation is actually a big step forward."
"Librem 15, the first free software GNU/Linux laptop, makes funding goal"
"Purism is working to give you all the privacy and freedom they can"
Produced by Purism in San Francisco, CA.
Sold and shipped by Crowd Supply.
To redeem after purchasing the coupon, please enter your coupon order number into the customer comments section when completing your Librem purchase. Limit one coupon per customer.
