A company called Purism recently launched a campaign to create the “first high-end laptop in the world that ships without mystery software in the kernel, operating system, or any software applications”. Using Crowd Supply, a curated crowd-funding and e-commerce company similar to that of Kickstarter, they set out with a $250,000 goal and a big idea. As of January 21st they have met that goal and with five days remaining in the campaign, pledges continue to roll in (to the tune of nearly $330,000 as of today). It seems there is a lot of interest in a laptop that actually respects your essential freedoms and privacy – who knew?

Previously, users seeking a laptop where all the software is free and open source (FOSS) generally had to settle for mediocre hardware. Even Richard Stallman, a FOSS guru of sorts, is currently managing to do the job with a several-years-old ThinkPad. This seemed unacceptable to creator Todd Weaver, who said he’d never been satisfied with free software laptops, and that “after a decade of wanting high quality hardware that respects my rights, and never finding one, I knew I couldn’t be the only one that believed what I believed”. Obviously he wasn’t, as the Librem 15 managed to clear its crowdfunding goal without even breaking a sweat.

Set to ship in April 2015, the Librem 15 is officially coming to fruition and for those of you interested, there are still a few days left to make a pledge and reserve your very own. For the low, low cost of only $1,849, you can enjoy the benefits of a portable PC that combines modern parts with software that’s accessible from top to bottom. The Librem 15 will boast a 15.6-inch 1920x1080 display, a 3.4 GHz 4-core Intel i7 CPU, Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200, 4GBs of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and a 720p Webcam. As for the operating system, it will use Purism 64-bit GNU/Linux, a Trisquel-based operating system built off Ubuntu Linux.

For all its shiny, FOSS optimism, there are still a few flies in the seemingly pure Librem 15 ointment. First of all, it is fairly pricy given the amount of memory and storage it provides when compared to its Mac or Windows PC closed source counterparts. Additionally, Purism has yet to get Intel to open-source the Intel Firmware Support Package (FSP) and Management Engine (ME) blobs, which are essential for Linux to work with the Intel chip-sets. As I type, they have still not gained access to this code. All that being said, they are off to a great start and their heart is certainly in the right place. Only time will tell how successful the Librem 15 is in practice; I’ll be sure to update you when they launch in a few months.