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They are trying: Purism is selling the Librem 5 USA at $1,600 From the site: "The Librem 5 USA has Made in USA Electronics with all fabrication and manufactur

They are trying: Purism is selling the Librem 5 USA at $1,600 From the site: "The Librem 5 USA has Made in USA Electronics with all fabrication and manufacturing done at the Purism facility. Individual components used in fabrication are sourced direct from chip makers and parts distributors. We use US companies with US fabrication whenever possible. Most distributors are based in the US with the exception of large integrated circuits that are made in a variety of countries where those companies do fabrication (US, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan); an example is the NXP CPU we use from their fabrication in South Korea. While we source chips that are made in the US whenever possible, chip country of origin is not nearly as meaningful as country of board fabrication, especially when all chips are verified hardware circuits that are driven by free software in the kernel." [1]: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5-usa/#table-of-origin https://puri.sm/products/librem-5-usa/#table-of-origin If you look at the table on the site, its not 100% USA yet but they are getting close and thats a positive development.

renewiltord 2y ago
Usually a lot of "I would pay for a phone if it were made in the USA" people disappear once "here's a phone made in the USA" actually shows up. It's usually just bullshit.
- saturn8601 2y ago
  Ha! Joe Rogan used to bitch about this and then when presented with the Purism phone immediately dismissed it because only those 'dorks' use Linux.
2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
Is that because of US inefficiencies or that they can't subsidize the cost with spying? Both?
- gruez 2y ago
  >or that they can't subsidize the cost with spying? There's no evidence CCP is "subsidizing the cost with spying" when it comes to consumer electronics. Even when it came to telecom gear (during 5G rollout in developed countries), concerns were mostly theoretical.
  - 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
    I didn't mean the CCP and by spying I meant harvesting user data for ads. We were talking about why a US built phone is so expensive (Librem) compared to say Samsung, LG, etc. Are companies that aren't Purism offsetting their cost by harvesting juicy user data?
tokioyoyo 2y ago
It’s just going to be another Anom-style honeypot in the end, isn’t it?
- saturn8601 2y ago
  Hopefully not since you can validate it at a deeper level down to the kernel modules I believe. Thats why they chose this anemic CPU I think: no binary blobs. Wasn't Anom encrypted with "trust me bro" style security by obscurity? Also these guys have an anti-interdiction service thats pretty nifty: https://puri.sm/posts/anti-interdiction-services/ https://puri.sm/posts/anti-interdiction-services/ On the hardware side: Customized tamper-evident tape on the sealed plastic bag surrounding the laptop itself Customized tamper-evident tape on the internal, branded box Glitter nail polish covering the center (or all) screws on the bottom of the laptop Pictures of all of the above plus pictures of the inside of the laptop before sealing the bottom case All pictures sent to the customer out-of-band, signed by Purism and encrypted against the customer’s GPG key All coordination occurring over GPG-protected email Integration with PureBoot Bundle On the Software Side: Shipping the laptop and Librem Key to separate addresses Postponing shipment of the laptop until the Librem Key is delivered Configuring the Librem Key and PureBoot with custom, user-provided GPG keys and/or PINs
gruez 2y ago
>Purism is selling the Librem 5 USA at $1,600 That's actually worse than it seems on the surface. $1,600 might seem only twice as expensive as a "normal" phone (eg. iPhone 16, $799), but if you look at the specs it's much closer to a low-end phone that sells for >$100. For instance the redmi a3[1] sells for ~$75 and is better in every aspect CPU, GPU, display, memory, storage, battery. [1] https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_a3-12822.php https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_a3-12822.php
- Animats 2y ago
  How few are they making? That's insanely expensive for what it does.
- saturn8601 2y ago
  Well is a phone this is trying to be as open as possible. That redmi phone has a completely closed CPU. The Purism deliberately chose their CPU for these reasons. My point was that the US is making phones. Its not zero. Its a start...

renewiltord 2y ago

Usually a lot of "I would pay for a phone if it were made in the USA" people disappear once "here's a phone made in the USA" actually shows up. It's usually just bullshit.

saturn8601 2y ago
Ha! Joe Rogan used to bitch about this and then when presented with the Purism phone immediately dismissed it because only those 'dorks' use Linux.

2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago

Is that because of US inefficiencies or that they can't subsidize the cost with spying? Both?

gruez 2y ago
>or that they can't subsidize the cost with spying? There's no evidence CCP is "subsidizing the cost with spying" when it comes to consumer electronics. Even when it came to telecom gear (during 5G rollout in developed countries), concerns were mostly theoretical.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
  I didn't mean the CCP and by spying I meant harvesting user data for ads. We were talking about why a US built phone is so expensive (Librem) compared to say Samsung, LG, etc. Are companies that aren't Purism offsetting their cost by harvesting juicy user data?

tokioyoyo 2y ago

It’s just going to be another Anom-style honeypot in the end, isn’t it?

saturn8601 2y ago
Hopefully not since you can validate it at a deeper level down to the kernel modules I believe. Thats why they chose this anemic CPU I think: no binary blobs. Wasn't Anom encrypted with "trust me bro" style security by obscurity? Also these guys have an anti-interdiction service thats pretty nifty: https://puri.sm/posts/anti-interdiction-services/ https://puri.sm/posts/anti-interdiction-services/ On the hardware side: Customized tamper-evident tape on the sealed plastic bag surrounding the laptop itself Customized tamper-evident tape on the internal, branded box Glitter nail polish covering the center (or all) screws on the bottom of the laptop Pictures of all of the above plus pictures of the inside of the laptop before sealing the bottom case All pictures sent to the customer out-of-band, signed by Purism and encrypted against the customer’s GPG key All coordination occurring over GPG-protected email Integration with PureBoot Bundle On the Software Side: Shipping the laptop and Librem Key to separate addresses Postponing shipment of the laptop until the Librem Key is delivered Configuring the Librem Key and PureBoot with custom, user-provided GPG keys and/or PINs

gruez 2y ago

>Purism is selling the Librem 5 USA at $1,600 That's actually worse than it seems on the surface. $1,600 might seem only twice as expensive as a "normal" phone (eg. iPhone 16, $799), but if you look at the specs it's much closer to a low-end phone that sells for >$100. For instance the redmi a3[1] sells for ~$75 and is better in every aspect CPU, GPU, display, memory, storage, battery. [1] https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_a3-12822.php https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_a3-12822.php

Animats 2y ago
How few are they making? That's insanely expensive for what it does.
saturn8601 2y ago
Well is a phone this is trying to be as open as possible. That redmi phone has a completely closed CPU. The Purism deliberately chose their CPU for these reasons. My point was that the US is making phones. Its not zero. Its a start...