• 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.

• Librem 5 Batch FAQ

  We have been getting a lot of questions related to our announcement of the Librem 5 shipping schedule. Here, we will post the answers to some frequently asked questions, and update this document as new questions come in.

• Anyone Can Build This Open Source, DRM-Free Kindle Alternative

                         
  

                           

  It's harder to get an open source e-reader than you might think. Kindles are popular, but they lock you into Amazon's ecosystem. Amazon's books come with digital rights protection and the company can remove them from your device whenever it wants. Those problems exist on tablets from Barnes and Nobles, Google, and Apple, too. When it comes to open source reading, there's just no good options. The Open Book Project wants to change that.  

PINE64’s claim to fame was its open source-friendly Allwinner-based single board computers (SBC) that came at the height of the Raspberry Pi’s popularity. It has since then expanded to putting those boards and their experience inside more finished products, like the Pinebook ARM-based laptops. As the team’s Lukasz Erecinski narrates, the decision to add a smartphone to that list wasn’t an easy or quick one but it was the most logical next step (a tablet is in the works now as well).

But not even a year after that decision was made, the team has already started making making prototypes, enough to start pre-orders for them. Not everyone’s invited for now, though. Only experienced Linux developers that could contribute towards actually improving the PinePhone. That said, in October and November, they do plan on having a more open pre-order period, this time for tinkerers and app developers as well.

The design and composition of the boards are all but ready but aren’t set in stone. An Allwinner64 SoC will, of course, be at the heart of it all, with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of expandable storage. Those may sound almost laughable by today’s standards but the phone’s emphasis has always been on providing a private and secure open source Linux phone, not compete with Samsung and Apple. As such, it embraces a multitude of Linux on Phone projects and experiences and isn’t locked down to a single one.

The versatile single-board computer from the UK, the Raspberry Pi, is a firm favorite among makers and tinkerers and Linux hackers the world over. It’s small, it’s light, it’s easy to use and set up, and with the launch of the new Model B version 4, it’s really quite powerful.

But almost as interesting as the board itself are the kinds of peripheral gizmos you can attach to the main board. Most of these are third-party hats and other add-ons, but one of the most popular ones is the official Raspberry Pi camera.