postmarketOS is No More, At Least Under That Name

postmarketOS, the Linux-based operating system that many of you turn to for reviving your old smartphones, has undergone a name change, and it is now called "Nura."

This was announced during the project's conference recently, where the rebranding closed a long-running process that started last year in March, drawing more than 300 name submissions from the community.

It took a dedicated selection team and a trademark review aimed at accommodating languages from every continent to ensure that the new name didn't have any offensive meanings across different cultures.

postmarketOS had to go

The old name worked against the project in ways that compounded over time.

It was long, difficult to pronounce across many languages, and its mid-word capitalization had no obvious logic for anyone coming to it fresh. The project says that people were mischaracterizing it as "PostmarketOS," "Postmarketos," and "post-market OS."

Then there was the problem of scope; initially, when the project was focused on reviving old smartphones, it was an appropriate moniker to flaunt. But when PINE64 began shipping phones with postmarketOS pre-installed, it became a liability as they couldn't trademark a descriptive name.

That left the project with no legal standing to protect its identity against misrepresentation.

With Nura, a trademark application has already been filed, though it has not yet appeared in public trademark databases so far (I searched USPTO and EUIPO).

What's Nura?

Nura is short for Nuraghe, which are granite constructions scattered across Sardinia, Italy, with some of these being traced as far back as 3000 BC. Many of those structures are still standing, giving us a glimpse of what the Nuragic civilization built back in the day.

The project draws inspiration from that, seeing longevity as a direct match for its own goal of keeping smartphones useful for a decade or more.

The name itself came from Davide Depau, who submitted it during the project's open call for community contributions.

The selection team, consisting of Pablo C. Gómez, Pan Ortiz, Ranny Bergamotte, and Sriram Ramkrishna, worked through more than 300 submissions and narrowed the field to four finalists.

The team voted, and Nura won.

They also went for the .eco domain knowingly, as it is reserved for organizations committed to positive environmental change and comes with enforceable policies against greenwashing.

The project's current status

The new website presents a very straight-forward look at Nura's status, mentioning that it works best for people willing to learn how it works, contribute to testing, or help with development.

Its current release is v26.06, and for anyone getting started with Linux on mobile, the project points to second-hand Snapdragon 845 or Snapdragon 410/412-powered devices as the most sensible entry points.

Currently supported devices include the Fairphone 4, OnePlus 6 and 6T, PINE64 PinePhone and PinePhone Pro, Purism Librem 5, and several older Samsung and Xiaomi devices.

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