His investment is probably part of why these are such a hot commodity.
The media presence and advertising from LMG is worth a crazy amount. His followers are the exact target audience of this device and as long as he’s showing off what they’re up to I think they’ll continue to sell like this.
I'm really happy they're seeing good demand. Fully upgradable laptops have been a dream of mine for years and I've been thinking when it's time for me to replace mine, the Framework would be at the top of my list.
My only hesitation points when I first heard about the laptop was whether the company would survive long enough to make upgrades/accessories and whether the main board upgrades would actually work. The concept was, as you say, a dream.
Both of those concerns have faded away for me, my next laptop is pretty much 100% going to be a framework. Just need to stop spending money on dumb stuff so I can afford it...
Next time I need to replace my laptop I'll be getting a Framework if possible. I hate having old electronics go to waste and my devices are usually still in very good condition, just the internals can't keep up, so this sort of laptop was made for me. Plus I love tinkering with electronics and some of those modules look interesting!
Same here. I'm not ready to refresh yet, so I'm cheering on the current runs selling out so I'll get a chance later. Glad to hear they're having success with the 16 inch model.
Hell yeah Framework deserves all the goodness coming their way. I have an ASUS that's serving me well for now, but I think when I go to replace it next year, they're the ones I'm going to. Hopefully by then, they have AMD boards in the smaller sizes.
I believe Ryzen 7000 boards are already available for preorder in the 13 inch. Preorders are supposed to ship starting late 2023, so you should be all good by next year.
I'm glad to see the reception on this. Framework is doing a lot of good to help drive consumers toward more repairable options, and drive competitors to hopefully do the same in the long run. Hats off to them.
They really do produce great hardware, in my dev team we either use MacBooks or Framework Laptops depending on what everyone wants to use. Upgradability is great and everyone is really happy with their device so far.
can confirm. Work thinkpad broke a year ago and switched to a framework (had the exact same price for the same specced thinkpad, but was fully repeairable copared to thinkpads).
And just last week I received my personal 13gen intel framework.
I’ve been curious about these framework laptops for a while now. They seem pretty rad, but I really only compute on desktop, have a work provided laptop that could never be this, and the only other computer I need in my life is a Mac for app development, which this can’t fulfill. If I ever need a non-Mac laptop for personal use, framework would be the thing though.
The problem is we all love this kind of user supported laptop, but we never buy it soon enough and in enough quantity for the independent company to stay viable. We all individually always have some reason why we don't buy as soon as they come out.
I hope I'm wrong, but this is what I've seen in the past with other laptops from independent companies.
Check it out! It's a great, modular, and repairable laptop with comparable prices for the specs in regards to mainstream laptops.
You can even upgrade the motherboard, which means as long as the company doesnt go under you can just infinitely reuse and upgrade it kinda like a tower PC.
and you keep the company from going under by buying their products so buy it next time if you need a new laptop and can afford it =) and make sure to upgrade whenever you need it =)
Check the frame.work website. User repairable and upgradeable. Neat part is removable swappable ports so you configure the sides of your laptop how you like it.
I have their 13" laptop and love it! The ability to open it up and repair stuff has been awesome like I replaced the speakers in mine. With the macbook I had prior I would have had to buy an entire new laptop just to upgrade my speakers.
I was waiting for the options to be available. I guess it sold out fast. Now I would have to wait until early 2024. However, I need a laptop now. I guess I'll have to buy something else and upgrade to framework when that upgrade breaks.
I was not a huge fan of the Intel Framework, I used mine for a few weeks in January and had substantial issues with their recommended Ubuntu install. Aside from the battery life, I remember regular OS things were breaking pretty much daily. In the end I returned for a hardware issue (it stopped charging).
Hopefully an AMD core will help at least with battery life, but it seems like Linux users aren't a primary target. I'm not turned off them forever as I am still conceptually into it, but I'll wait a bit before trying again.
I bought my last laptop a couple months before they started shipping to Australia last year (dang it...), but Framework will be high on the list next time.
I have personally used fedora and nixos on a gen 1 framework 13 and it works great.
Does Framework do anything regarding FOSS drivers or firmware?
Regarding your question they say this:
We deliberately selected components and modules that didn’t require new kernel driver development and have been providing distro maintainers with pre-release hardware to test to improve compatibility. We’re also working on enabling firmware updates through LVFS to complete the Linux experience.
I do badly want to like these.. but I don't see the point.
Repairability wise mid range ThinkPad is nearly as good. Only major difference is I think Framework claims they will release schematics... and as someone who actually does component level repairs I've seen promises like this work I've or twice, but then they stop maintaining their data or pays get hard to get rendering the gesture null.
Upgrade wise... I switch machines every 4 to 6 years... at which point the chassis has a bit of wear and tear.
Spec wise I buy what I need and add a little headroom with the ThinkPad.
Spare parts are good for ThinkPad and Lenovo actually has component replacement guides that no one seems to mention or know about.
And when I do upgrade I appreciate having a complete spare machine.
I think it's also not unreasonable to assume my style of buying and upgrading is not uncommon.
This leaves the Framework very few hardware advantages and nil price advantages.
I still think they're a great idea, but I don't see any practical benefit over a sensible alternative.
Well, framework has one cool side-effect of their repair-friendly approach: their laptop mainboard can be used as an SBC. I've seen a few projects use it in this way, and I believe they even sell an official plastic case for it. It's a well-documented piece of computer hardware that is regularly refreshed and can be fitted easily into slim chassis.
Oh, and another cool thing is that their screens have magnetic bezels. ThinkPads are a PITA to fix if you just want to replace an LCD panel; framework makes it trivial to keep the upper chassis and only replace the part that's actually broken. That's the real pitch with Framework: replace anything easily and upgrade your computer for only the cost of the mainboard or socketable component. Some of their newer devices have a socketable PCIe expansion bay, which could be used for things like socketable GPU upgrades.
Framework has a good track record and I would give them the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. (Concerning upgradeability)
laptops are getting more and more powerful and I like the idea of treating them similar to a desktop
as a ThinkPad user you probably know how popular especially old ThinkPads are, because of the ability to mod them
you might buy a new laptop every few years but the point above proves that there will be people interested in a second hand laptop, therefore reducing waste
there will always be a market for good quality and customer friendly products and the existence of framework is great for competition (for the end user)
they support the open source mentality, even tried to help to bring coreboot to their laptops. Even though that failed they're keeping an eye on openSIL
overall I'm more of Linux instead of Windows, FOSS instead of corporate closed software, Lemmy instead of reddit and framework/system76/.. instead of Lenovo/.. kind of person. I see it partly as a fight for "freedom" if you so will.
I run a Thinkpad and my partner is an early adopter of the v1 Framework. She had quite a few early adopter issues on her leading me to believe the hardware polish isn't there 100% (eg hinges too weak they had to release an upgrade, this broke the display cable and led to BIOS issues, etc).
I mostly agree, the one place I think Thinkpad could use more maintainability is in mainboard compatibility. Framework promises (TBD) Mainboard compatibility across upgrades, we'll see if they deliver.
Not asking much... Just if they just would add a trackpoint, a decent mechanical keyboard (don't mind if this adds 0.5cm to the thickness) and offer a black chassis...
I feel they would really be the new home of former IBM ThinkPad users which are more and more disappointed about Lenovos decisions to try to compete with Macs.
I’m guessing it’s supposed to be “parts get hard to get”, which is accurate. It doesn’t matter if you have the schematic that shows your SB00C793FGX64 rev3 needs replacing if the part isn’t manufactured anymore.
I bought a framework laptop for my significant other last year and it's amazing. It feels super solid like a Macbook but is easy to open and change out parts. Nothing has broken but adding some ram was probably the most pleasant experience I have had working on a laptop. Plus, the main PCB can run without the rest of the laptop so perhaps a great home automation server or TV computer if we upgrade.
My next machine is definitely going to be one of these. Way cheaper than Apple if you want more than 8G of RAM and a decent amount of disk space.
When I configured it, a 13" mac pro with 16GB ram and 1TB SSD is $1600 from apple, the 13" framework with 16GB ram and 1TB SSD is $1065. That comes out to a 60% difference for the most basic configuration I would consider.
thanks. I remember looking at something like this years ago but it was really new and it did not list any parts which turned me off at the time as I want to know I can get parts later. I don't know if this is the same thing or just similar but going to think about getting one of these (when I can)
Been two years now since i first heard about Framework from the first LTT video on it (just checked at that video actualy came out in july 2021), and i was allready looking at replacing my laptop, so i thought Framework would be great to get.
Now two years have passed, and they still aren't available in my region. Couldn't realy delay the replacement any more, so now i have ended up getting a different laptop, meaning even i Framework became available here soon, i won't buy a new laptop for 5-6 years at least.
Last i checked (a couple of months back), they were finaly working on keyboard layouts for the area, but still no info on when te laptops would be available around here.
I really like the idea but two things stop me.. one is cost. They're considerably more expensive than laptops elsewhere. The seconf is the unproven long term uogtwdeability. In 5 years time when I'm looking to upgrade will framewotk be selling parts that let me do that? A new CPU board and I'm sorted.. Ot is it a whole new laptop. I suspect the latter.
At 'o' I was thinking "oh their right hand is shifted". Then at 't' I'm wondering if they use their right hand for 'r' but now they are shifted the other way. Finally it finishes at 'w' and now they are shifted the other way again and up a row. My conclusion is that they hover their hands above keyboard without touching and just smash down in the general direction of the keys.
The obvious answer is phone keyboard but that's not as fun.
When I'm not paying attention sometimes one hand will get shifted and I'll write it a whole sentence with half of the letters offset.
Have you looked at other laptops elsewhere? They are a very comparable price. This is the going rate for a laptop of that spec.
Unproven upgradability? They are quite literally the ONLY laptop manufacturer to have provided ANY upgradability in the last 5 years. Why are you concerned about them letting you upgrade in 5 years when no one else lets you upgrade even next year?
It is a fully upgradable and repairable laptop. Framework also offers an enclosure to use old boards as mini desktop PCs, or as a home server, or whatever. Nothing goes to waste.
Yeah I would think if anything this is more sustainable because you can just easily swap the parts that need upgrading instead of having to scrap the whole laptop.
that's the weirdest, most backwards and worst take I have seen about framework, ever. Congratulations, I don't think anyone will ever going to top this amount of dribble