Its PureOS operating system is now convergent

Mar 6, 2019 13:00 GMT  ·  By

Purism revealed today that it's been working for a while on making its Debian-based PureOS Linux operating system convergent for the upcoming Librem 5 Linux phone and its Librem 13 and 15 laptops.

Following on Canonical's convergence dream for Ubuntu Linux, Purism made the convergence dream a reality for its PureOS Linux operating system that ships pre-installed with all Librem laptops, as well as the upcoming Librem 5 Linux phone, allowing users to use a single set of apps on both mobile phones and laptops.

"If you’ve ever had an app on your phone that you wanted on your laptop, you’ve wanted convergence," said Jeremiah Foster, Director PureOS at Purism. "Purism's PureOS is convergent, and has laid the foundation for all future applications to run on both the Librem 5 phone and Librem laptops, from the same PureOS release."

Since GNOME is used as default desktop environment for PureOS, Purism is also working hard on creating adaptive ​GNOME​ apps that look and work great on both mobile phones and laptops. Purism says that convergent apps will also be a lot easier to maintain and secure than having separate builds for mobile and desktop.

Librem 5 Linux phone will feature convergence too

As you might expect, Purism's upcoming Librem 5 Linux phone will also feature convergence since it's shipping with the PureOS operating system by default. This means that you'll be able to effortlessly turn the device into a computer just by plugging it to an LCD display, keyboard, and mouse. More details are available in the blog announcement.

With the convergence foundation already in place, Purism puts all the wheels in motion for the arrival of its first Linux-powered smartphone, the Librem 5, in Q3 2019 with the promise to be the first truly open source and free mobile device that respects user's privacy. Purism also announced last month the PureBoot initiative to help users better secure their Linux laptops.