Purism is a company dedicated to offering us devices with a focus on software freedom, security, and privacy, and it just announced a new desktop PC that delivers on all those fronts in a tiny package.
This new, small form-factor PC is called the Purism Librem Mini, and it measures just 5-by-5-by-3.8-inches in size and weighs 2.2 pounds, which is smaller and lighter than a Mac mini. Inside, you'll find am 8th-gen Whiskey Lake Core i7-8565U with four cores (eight threads) running at 1.8GHz boosting up to 4.6GHz. It can be spec'd with up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM, and offers SATA and M.2 connections for storage.
Ports include HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2, a 3.5mm combo audio jack, Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.0, four USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and a single USB 3.1 Type-C port. 802.11n Wi-Fi is also available through the addition of an Atheros ATH9K module.
The Librem Mini runs PureOS, which is classed as a "fully free" Linux distribution based on Debian and uses the GNOME desktop. It only includes software and apps that are free/libre and open source. Add to that Purism's secured boot process called Pureboot, and Librem Key for managing passwords, providing multi-factor authentication, and BIOS integration to stop tampering, and you have a very secure and open little desktop machine.
Purism believes the Librem Mini is perfect for anyone who needs a capable, general purpose desktop, a media center PC, or a mini server. Prices start at $699, which gets you 8GB of RAM and a 250GB SATA drive, but no wireless. If you want 64GB of RAM, a 1TB M.2 SSD, and wireless, the price spikes to $1,506.
In order to secure a Librem Mini, you'll need to pick a spec and place a pre-order. Purism has a pre-launch funding goal of $50,000 to meet through pre-orders. Once met, shipping will start a month later. At the time of writing the goal total stands at $2,712.
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