Bonum Certa Men Certa

Purism Wants This Video Removed, So We Need to Speak About What It's Trying to Hide (and Of Course Back Up the Video)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 22, 2023

Video: Purism ghosts Librem 5 customer, lies about refund policy - avoid this horrible company

Purism ghosts Librem 5 customer, lies about refund policy - avoid this horrible company

LAST year and this year we didn't mention this topic very often, if at all. Sometimes people prefer to say nothing than to say something bad about things they care for.

Purism is a subject we covered here before, both positively and negatively. The FSF formally endorses Purism's PureOS, recognising it as a free/libre distribution (and OS). But how is Purism as a company? There's a lot more to a company like this than just developers, many of whom with background in Debian.

Citing this video, a reader of ours said: "The Purism scandal continues..."

Noted by our source is the observation that censorship/secrecy shrouds this. Purism attempted a takedown, so we're making a full copy.

Our reader explains:

Would be interesting to find the Purism employees who went to the factory unannounced in California and discovered a large percentage - over 70 if I recall - of returned and broken laptops. An interview 4 years after the fact about that visit would really expose the depth of the facade.

From what I was told, the hardware was cheap and parts/returned units were everywhere.

That's when, according to the source and my recollection, the new tier of more expensive phone was offered. Totally in the red because of the returns and tried to make it up with the phone.

At that point, FCC was never going to approve from what I recall.

So, the employees were summarily dismissed - within a few weeks, could be shorter, all visitors to the operations center were gone from Purism either through voluntary or involuntary action. I believe a bulk were let go within 24 hours.

Purism folks tried to sell some social media subscription which was ridiculous but I could be wrong. Maybe that's their bread and butter now? Not sure what they are doing these days, but Purism sent a letter to the youtuber pleading the takedown of the video.

Our community is a forgiving one, but transparency and honesty is a virtue.

Our reader prefers to stay anonymous, but she spoke to people who know all this firsthand (or close).

Purism's PureOS does respect freedom and Purism as a company probably means well. But we need to know what happens in practice. It's unwise to endorse something that can get people 'burned' and then 'gaslit'.

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