Purism has announced a partnership with Qubes OS, users will be able to order Qubes OS preinstalled on the Librem 13.
https://twitter.com/revskills/status/674209460492115968
Excerpted quotes from press release:
“We are pleased to partner with the Purism team both in offering a certified Qubes OS laptop today, and in the future improving the functionality and security of Purism laptops to ensure that users can have the best of freedom, security and privacy in one convenient package,” said Joanna Rutkowska, well-known security researcher and founder of the Qubes OS project.
“We are ecstatic about the partnership between Purism and Qubes so we can bring together our goals of privacy, security and freedom in hardware with the best approach in software security. This union represents the ideal approach to protecting users by default, without sacrificing convenience or usability,” said Todd Weaver, CEO of Purism. “Qubes OS is a natural fit with the Purism Librem laptops in both functionality and ideology.”
Full press release:
https://puri.sm/posts/purism-partners-with-qubes-security-focused-hardware-and-software-together/
https://puri.sm/
https://www.qubes-os.org/
I was originally wondering why not use Qubes instead of PureOS in the first place, so I’m happy with their use of Qubes for OS solution.
I’m unclear about status of PureOS, is it mothballed or is it another OS option for Librem? Given use of Qubes, what does this say about future hardware architecture choices by Purism? AFAICT, Qubes is an Intel/AMD-centric OS, will PureOS still be used on ARM-based tablets/smartphones? Will Qubes have any ARM port?
Firmware Security 
Here are answers to your inquiries in today’s post about the Librem and QubesOS:
>
> I was originally wondering why not use Qubes instead of PureOS in the
> first place, so I’m happy with their use of Qubes for OS solution.
>
> I’m unclear about status of PureOS, is it mothballed or is it another
> OS option for Librem?
It is another OS option, and later we plan to have PureOS become the
default template within QubesOS, since PureOS focuses on privacy and
freedom, while QubesOS focuses on security, it is the perfect marriage.
PureOS intends to make security and privacy easy, which is why it will
continue to be developed and used.
> Given use of Qubes, what does this say about future hardware
> architecture choices by Purism?
It says one thing loudly, we will be manufacturing security focused
hardware.
> AFAICT, Qubes is an Intel/AMD-centric OS, will PureOS still be used on
> ARM-based tablets/smartphones? Will Qubes have any ARM port?
Once we get to tablets/smartphones we will determine if we can utilize a
Qubes base, and PureOS template within, or just use PureOS. The current
plan is to have everything ship QubesOS + PureOS template.
> Can we answer these questions?
I hope that helps.
LikeLike
>
> I was originally wondering why not use Qubes instead of PureOS in the
> first place, so I’m happy with their use of Qubes for OS solution.
>
> I’m unclear about status of PureOS, is it mothballed or is it another
> OS option for Librem?
It is another OS option, and later we plan to have PureOS become the
default template within QubesOS, since PureOS focuses on privacy and
freedom, while QubesOS focuses on security, it is the perfect marriage.
PureOS intends to make security and privacy easy, which is why it will
continue to be developed and used.
> Given use of Qubes, what does this say about future hardware
> architecture choices by Purism?
It says one thing loudly, we will be manufacturing security focused
hardware.
> AFAICT, Qubes is an Intel/AMD-centric OS, will PureOS still be used on
> ARM-based tablets/smartphones? Will Qubes have any ARM port?
Once we get to tablets/smartphones we will determine if we can utilize a
Qubes base, and PureOS template within, or just use PureOS. The current
plan is to have everything ship QubesOS + PureOS template.
> Can we answer these questions?
I hope that helps.
LikeLike
>
> I was originally wondering why not use Qubes instead of PureOS in the
> first place, so I’m happy with their use of Qubes for OS solution.
>
> I’m unclear about status of PureOS, is it mothballed or is it another
> OS option for Librem?
It is another OS option, and later we plan to have PureOS become the
default template within QubesOS, since PureOS focuses on privacy and
freedom, while QubesOS focuses on security, it is the perfect marriage.
PureOS intends to make security and privacy easy, which is why it will
continue to be developed and used.
> Given use of Qubes, what does this say about future hardware
> architecture choices by Purism?
It says one thing loudly, we will be manufacturing security focused
hardware.
> AFAICT, Qubes is an Intel/AMD-centric OS, will PureOS still be used on
> ARM-based tablets/smartphones? Will Qubes have any ARM port?
Once we get to tablets/smartphones we will determine if we can utilize a
Qubes base, and PureOS template within, or just use PureOS. The current
plan is to have everything ship QubesOS + PureOS template.
> Can we answer these questions?
I hope that helps.
Todd Weaver, CEO, Purism
LikeLike