I’m not active on the Purism forum. I just own a Librem laptop and I’ve pre-ordered a phone. But I took the liberty of writing a short note about SAFE and SOLID there:
Does that sound about right to you guys?
20 Likes
Looks good 
3 Likes
What’s been your experience with the laptop?
I’ve been checking them out for my next purchase, perhaps next year. Kind of waiting for the next gen stuff and for a new generation of processors to come out that have closed the hardware backdoors that have been revealed this year.
I’ve listened to a few interviews with the CEO and the CTO and liked what I’ve heard so far. I’ve only used Ubuntu on a partitioned Chromebook, which was kind of a pain in the butt, but need to get educated better on Linux to feel comfortable enough to make the leap. Some kind of primer course needs to be available for people to make the transition that helps support people with the initial, steep part of the learning curve.
The phone sounds awesome. Can’t wait to see some of the reviews when they come.
Good article. I think you should mention that you are a satisfied Purism customer, etc., so it doesn’t come off like just spamming about some unknown crypto project on that forum. I’d also drop a link to one of the good layman articles or blog posts that have been written about SAFE in the last few months. I’ve seen some good primer material out there recently. It’s also important to highlight the already on-going relationship between SAFE and SOLID. I’d say a bit more about SOLID too. Give those people a hook to want to know more! Anyway, you are spot-on to see the benefits of these two projects. They are leading the way in hardware and software, respectively. So exciting!
4 Likes
I know what you mean. Although I’m not active on that forum, I have posted before, so I’m not completely new. For the same reason you mention I don’t want to post too much there about these projects. I just put out a little hook. Everybody here probably knows I’m no marketer, so I’m trying to be careful. I’m unsure of myself and so I asked what you all thought about my post. I got some likes, so apparently it was ok.
Here is my reply to David from before.
To be honest I haven’t used the laptop much. My Librem 15 is mainly for travel. I don’t really like laptops and avoid them if I can. Generally they just feel small and fiddly to me, but this one at least feels like well maid no-nonsense quality hardware.
And here is a thread about the phone.
I got frustrated with Windows way back and made a complete switch to Linux about 15 years ago or so. I think I used Debian or Redhat and then Ubuntu. But then Ubuntu started changing the GUI around and, being the conservative type, I went with Mint that is also Ubuntu-based. I’m no expert, but I think Mint might be the friendliest distro out there. It’s very much plug and play, i.e. very far from fiddly Windows. My box just works, i.e. it obeys me.
Microsoft have always tried to make dual-booting or switching difficult. One of their latest moves was the “secure boot” scheme. They also have their own way of setting the system time and messing with the BIOS. Librems use Coreboot instead of a proprietary BIOS, which was important to me. I never used a Chromebook but, if you had problems, my guess is it was Windows on the other partition that was making your life difficult. Nowadays you can even play many of the big games on Linux. I don’t use Wine. Nvidia isn’t a Linux-friendly company, but I think the graphics stuff still works well.
2 Likes
I have been introduced to SAFE through your post @ puri.sm @Sascha - nice marketing and thanks. 
8 Likes
Nice work.
What is the Purism forum?
1 Like
The company Purism
makes laptops with open source Coreboot BIOS. (I have a Librem 15 and I’ve pre-ordered the phone.)
Their forum is here:
5 Likes
Wow, sounds interesting. I’ll look into them. Thanks
1 Like