I certainly empathise with you and other customers regarding Purism’s communication or lack thereof (about this and other issues). However there is also the perspective of “never say never” i.e. not wanting to cut options off i.e. no definite decision has ever been made either way - so there is nothing to announce. And that always has to be considered against the opposite risk i.e. announcing prematurely and then disappointing the customers when the schedule slips (which we have seen enough of).
Each individual Fir customer has to make up his or her mind. I doubt that I would have been as patient as @wednesday but if s/he doesn’t need the phone right now, why not continue waiting?
They need to make some sort of priority of getting the phone vetted on the carriers, because they are going to exclude “rogue” devices from their network for several reasons. 5G modem is great, but if the carrier will not allow the device on their network then it’s useless, unless you just want to use data maybe. Who knows if they start locking out unvetted data devices too.
Librem 5 “Fir” == L5v2. Going forward, Purism will likely not offer any hardware version greater than N+1 (where N is the current version) due to the constantly shifting nature of the world market and component/vendor availability.
L5v2 will contain updated internals/specifications but will most likely leverage the same mechanical design as L5v1. It is imperative to extend the lifespan of Purism devices and limit e-waste as much as possible. Therefore, as long as the mechanical design remains constant and barring any unforeseen roadblocks, it is Purism’s goal to also allow the internals to be upgraded by the user by offering a standalone mainboard in a crowdfunding campaign and later in the web shop.
Fir was meant to be a batch like from Amber to Evergreen, just with a newer, but not better CPU (has some pros and some cons compared to the current one). If this would be L5v2, it would be very disappointing. I would expect L5v2 a way ahead of L5 Liberty, at least about CPU.
Just saying, Purism should be clear about the namings and expectations to avoid unnecessary drama. What should be Fir, what should be L5v2? Or is Fir just abandoned and you go straight forward to L5v2? If things have changed to what was told years ago, communicate it early (in best case via blog post) and things will run fine. I just don’t want to see any new drama just for bad communication again.
And of course it is not about mechanical design - could be the same until end of time. It’s about expectations that are created years ago.
A lot of the information about that is 5 years old and hence of questionable applicability today i.e. out-of-date. I don’t think it really matters whether it is called “Fir” or “L5v2”. The key point is that Fir should have “updated specifications”, quoting JCS, as compared with the 5 earlier batches. Hence @spacemanspiffy’s question (beat me to it).
There has, over the 5 years, been a lot of chatter about future improved CPUs from NXP. The i.MX9 series now exists and uses a smaller process (hence should be more energy-efficient, ceteris paribus) but whether it is a drop-in replacement or even suitable I don’t know. Existing discussion: New NXP i.MX 9 Chips
Yes, I agree, Purism should be clear in setting expectations because otherwise we all know how that story goes.
The communication is fairly clear. The two names have been “unified”.
They are one and the same thing.
NB: Aspen.
For many use cases, it really doesn’t matter how sexy the specifications are if you can’t use it as a, you know, phone.
Tackling this is a two-edged sword.
On the bad side … there is a lot that is simply beyond Purism’s control. They don’t make the modem and they don’t run the MNO.
On the good side … the firmware can be updated by the customer in a straightforward manner … and even a change of modem, if that became necessary, can in principle be done by the customer. The core of the phone is untouched.
Since Purism never updated that information and some people still waiting for Fir, it doesn’t matter. A phone with i.MX 9 should just labeled as L5v2, another i.MX 8 should be labeled as Fir. That’s my opinion. And the status of people waiting for Fir should be made official clear (not via JCS on some sub-forums that nobody will find) if the next phone is using i.MX 9.
Isn’t this how other phone manufacturers make money, though, historically, and keep afloat? They release a new phone with slightly better specs each year (slightly thinner, slightly more battery life, slightly faster CPU, etc) and people buy a new phone every year/every other year. Not good for the environment, but ensures a steady flow of cash and so makes economic sense. I wonder why Purism isn’t doing that (I know: Liberty phone).
Add SDR104-Mode support for Slot-Tray_SdCard for Fir, even better Redesing the scheme to use the Cortex.M7 to manager dedicated all Librem 5 peripherals, in this way the CPU will work more Freedom. Even better Redesing the Evergreen scheme to use it Cortex.M3 for same purpose…
Librem 5 Mach Edition.
G N U
Característica
NXP i.MX 8M Plus[ FIR ]
Rockchip RK3588 [ LIBERUX ]
Control en Tiempo Real
Sí (Cortex-M7 @ 800 MHz)
No
Bus de Control Industrial
Sí (2x CAN-FD)
No
Ethernet Determinista
Sí (TSN Support)
No
Fiabilidad de Memoria
Sí (DDR ECC)
No
Procesador de Voz
Sí (HiFi 4 DSP)
No
Doble Cámara (ISP)
Sí (Dual ISP para visión estéreo)
No
Rendimiento CPU/GPU
Sí Bueno (Exelente)
Sí Excelente (Superior)
Capacidad de Video
Sí 4K60 (Exelente)
Sí 8K60 (Superior)
This showed that Librem 5 Fir still better than Liberux Phone.
I make i mistake it is not M3 but something more powerfull M4F on Evergreen.
I make i mistake here, as FIR ship Twin GPUs like Turbo Acceleration!
Newer RK3568 will support this Fir features. At the moment Rockchip it only keeping Docs open for public, as NXP DO NOT want to following Freescale things like Docs open for public, starting on i.MX 9. = (
@JCS Please please convince Purism to release Fir-Socs as promised. Only you can advocate for us need . Thanks of advance.
Remember FIR/Evergreen it depend for a HDR10 via LTPO_only Display,
Also i want say that Librem 5 it is the first in the world TRULY Gnu Linux mobile phone plus INMORTAL.
Librem 5 is a magic device. Librem 5 is not PinephoneS or Furiphones or Jollaphones or the rest of devices…
Librem 5 is a dream device made by Purism.
Librem 5 itself is a Powerfull and Greatest device, however GTK is so TERRIBLE for embedded, making L5 looks bad.
GTK is made for MacBook in mind, and now for iPhone via Gnome. So the dream for Gnome is to see Phosh on iPhone. Gnome love Apple .
If Fir already exist, then i pretty sure that Libcamera already was working on supporting Fir ISP.
But looks like Fir needed to ship a better sensor camera supported in v4l2, i not sure which one.
One nicer features on Fir is: Extreme speed, Extreme energy efficiency, Extreme cold SoCs, Deepseek Ready, IA camera Ready.
Since the Librem 5 was made to be Autonomous by Software and Hardware, so i think Fir it is.
I WANT, I WISH A LIBREM 5 FIR. I need it urgently. Fir the Future!
Sí (Cortex-M7 @ 800 MHz)
No
convince Purism to release Fir-Socs as promised. Only you can advocate for us need 
. Thanks of advance.