Tux Machines

Purism's Expensive Phone, Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update, and Why Making Another GNU/Linux-Based Smartphone OS is Hard

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jul 03, 2023

Purism found a way to make its Linux phone even more expensive: meet the $2,199 Liberty Phone

When Purism first announced plans to build a smartphone that would run mainline Linux, the company set a launch price of $599 for the Librem 5 phone. But it took another two years for the phone to begin shipping in small batches. By then, it had received a $100 price hike.

In the years since then, Purism has raised the price several more times… by a lot. An entry-level Librem 5 now sells for $1,299 and customers who want a made-in-the-USA model can pay $1,999 for a phone that’s basically the same, but promises a “secure supply chain” for folks worried about buying phones made in China. And now… there’s an even more expensive model called the Liberty Phone. It has a little more memory and storage and a $2,199 price tag.

2023-06-25 [Older] Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (25/2023): Mobian on PineTab 2 and Droidian Trixie

Flashback: phones that weren’t, part 4: making a new smartphone OS is hard

The more tech-savvy among you probably know that Android is based on the Linux kernel. But it is nothing like a typical Linux that you may have seen on PCs – or on smartphones.