After five and a half years since the last significant release, Purism has announced the launch of PureOS 11, a distribution kit built on the Debian package base. PureOS is known for including only free applications and being supplied with the GNU Linux-Libre kernel, making it recognized by the Free Software Foundation as completely free. It is even listed in the recommended distributions by the foundation. Developed by Purism, the creators of the Liberty Phone and Librem 5 smartphones, PureOS is also featured in laptops with CoreBoot-based firmware. Installation iso images are available for download in GNOME (1.9 GB) and KDE (2.2 GB), supporting Live mode.
Privacy is a key focus in PureOS, offering various tools to protect user data and privacy. The distribution provides encryption tools for data on disk, includes Tor Browser, and comes with the Privacy Badger add-on pre-installed to prevent user tracking on the Web. The default browser, PureBrowser, is a version of Firefox.
One of the standout features of PureOS is its “Convergence” mode, offering a responsive user experience for both mobile and desktop devices. The distribution supports cross-platform application interface, adapting to different screen sizes and input devices. PureOS comes default on smartphones, tablets, laptops, servers, and miniature PCs from the Librem series.
Some of the main changes in PureOS 11 include updating the base to Debian 12 “Bookworm”, upgrading GNOME to branch 44 (from 40), and KDE Plasma to release 6.2 (also supporting 5.27). The KDE Plasma desktop assembly now includes standard KDE applications, eliminating the need for the GNOME Software program. Additionally, a minimal set of developer tools has been added to desktop builds for convenience.
The camera stack has been modernized with OpenGL for better photo post-processing. The camera app now allows barcode scanning, automatic image rotation, improved audio