Hello,
With Debian 12 out now, I’m wondering when we can expect a new version of PureOS based on it. Is there a road map available somewhere?
There are still about 100 known RC bugs affecting Debian 12 and was released with them included.
I guess it Would be better wait to next month to start a new version of PureOS for a stable release version 12.1
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Is this Purism’s stance or personal opinion? Not trying to devalue your contribution here, but I am looking for some kind of official statement from those who control the release cycle since I can’t find one elsewhere.
I can infer from the last two releases that PureOS follows a Debian stable release by a month or two. Based on the DistroWatch pages, that’s the closest I can come to establishing a pattern.
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The community forum is not where Purism makes official statements.
That is roughly the pattern, though there is more complexity now with the need for arm support in a way that is more visible than previously thus I would anticipate a bit more of a delay than previously.
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Interesting! How so?
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There is something about it here, the PureOS version based on Debian 12 is to be called “Crimson”:
PureOS’s next release “Crimson” is advancing rapidly, which will be based on Debian Bookworm. After that release, we will keep putting effort in our infrastructure to be able to release new versions of PureOS more frequently so that all our customers stay up to date with the latest software and benefits that come with it.
“Bookworm” is the code name for Debian 12: https://www.debian.org/News/2023/20230610
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Ah, this is good information - thanks! In particular, I’m glad to see the note about pushing it to the cutting edge as I abandoned the distro since the late of updates to GNOME made it just feel too dated FOR ME. Debian 12 actually seems like a feasible desktop for the time being.
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By the time that PureOS based on Debian 12 is released, I expect that 12.1 will be out, and it should be fairly easy and quick to catch up to that. While I prefer that Purism spend more time on the phone’s needs than fixing distribution stuff, building on Debian 12 will likely make supporting certain things easier and will be a better long term platform to build on, as opposed to the aging and soon to be replaced Debian 11.
It seems like a lot of Flatpaks are built for Ubuntu’s version of glibc, making them unusable on Debian 11 and the current version of PureOS. Maybe this major upgrade will make those available to us, or at least easier for people to port to PureOS/Debian. For example, in addition to supporting a newer version of glibc, PipeWire will be available, which replaces certain things, and has been available in other distributions for a little while.
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Those that are using some external keyboard connected to their Librem 5 might want to confirm here that crimson repository is 100% functional (as of today or rather as of introduction day to Debian 12, meaning within very same comfort/time zone):
And, as side note,
https://mirror.linux.pizza/pureos is the only PureOS repository that is not to be used any more, but otherwise: https://mirrors.jevincanders.net/pureos/repo/pureos/, https://mirrors.sonic.net/pureos/repo/, https://mirror.fsf.org/pureos/ and default PureOS repo functionality, in particularly related here to PureOS Crimson, isn’t something that might open another discussion here (simple Linux user perspective related).
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No, it’s not. Many things are subtly broken and regressed still. It’s a long way until we can recommend upgrading. It’s not even at a point where filling up bug reports would be useful yet.
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This is good to know. After the wait for my L5 I was happy with my recent experience with the state of PureOS received, and so I will wait for the Crimson Green Light 
(with anticipation 
)
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On a sidenote I have for the first time in several years, or first time ever installed Debian 12 as my desktop environment, instead of Ubuntu and I have to say it is a much more coherent experience with less bloat, faster performance and a boot menue that Ubuntu was never able to consistently display (using EFI partition to boot from Trashcan Mac).
I don’t know why I waited this long, but I have to say Debian 12 is solid and has less idiosyncrasies than Ubuntu.
e.g.
- in Ubuntu selecting the quick menue to turn off LAN would make the option disappear temporarily, while in Debian 12 it remains
- Ubuntu had to GRUB menue and it couldn’t be shown, Debian has a boot menue (not that I would use it for much)
- With Ubuntu you have to weed out all the apps installed by snap and snap store, then convert it to gnome store, in Debian you don’t have to do that
- text in Debian 12 seems to be more bold and the window navigation seems to be simpler with fewer options that Ubuntu (which is appreciated)
PureOS unfortunately I was not able to install on the trashcan, I would if it installed.
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I don’t think it shows the GRUB menu by default (which is reasonable default behaviour for non-technical users). However I have configured /etc/default/grub so that the GRUB menu is always shown for X seconds - and that has worked reliably every day for years.
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