14 DAY TRIAL // Purism announced today that the crowdfunding campaign of its Librem 5 security- and privacy-focused free and open-source Linux smartphone has successfully ended with $2 million.
Librem 5 was successfully crowdfunded about two weeks ago when it surpassed its goal of $1.5 million, but the campaign continued to run, and now it appears to have gathered half million dollars more, ending with $2 million, which we believe is more than enough to build world's first truly free mobile device.
Powered by PureOS, Purism's own GNU/Linux distribution based on the popular Debian GNU/Linux operating system, but focused on offering users a privacy-focused and more secure desktop solution, Librem 5 will be using KDE's Plasma Mobile and GNOME's GNOME Shell user interfaces, along with powerful open source software.
During its crowdfunding campaign, Librem 5 saw an amazing feedback from the Open Source community as Purism partnered not only with big names like KDE and GNOME, but also with Nextcloud, which will bring its end-to-end encrypted file sync, sharing and cloud-based storage solution by default to the Linux smartphone.
What's next for Librem 5
Now that the crowdfunding campaign is over, Purism will put the money to good use in the manufacturing process of Librem 5 smartphone, which should start as soon as they find a company willing to build the mobile device. Once that's done, there will be a lot of testing, including for PureOS, Librem 5's default OS.
This will be done over the coming months, and it could take as long as the entire year of 2018 as Purism plans to partner with more Open Source companies with the ultimate goal of delivering the first Librem 5 units in the first quarter of 2019. Until then, all we can do is keep our fingers crossed for the Librem 5 Linux smartphone.
We are humbled and elated at the support surrounding the @Librem5. Thank you so much! pic.twitter.com/LUMnQGXn4V — Purism (@Puri_sm) October 22, 2017