Technology

I think the Framework laptop is absolutely good for the industry. Many of your points attempt to diminish or omit the pros and emphasize the cons of things.

E.g. ports. You don't notice that the Framework ports also work with everything else that a dongle does. You also don't notice that having modular ports provides extraordinary durability. Ports are often a thing that gets destroyed on laptops. Repairing often means a main board replacement. With a Framework, it's $20 port card and 10 seconds of work.

You compare their parts situation to Apple's by omitting the important fact that Framework's parts, especially the wear and tear ones like coolers, keyboards and batteries are dirt cheap and easily available for purchase. I don't know about you but I've replaced many ThinkPad batteries over the years and finding genuine ones is often a pain and they're invariably very expensive. 2-3x more expensive than what a Framework battery is.

Personally, I've already seen the benefits of the Framework model. I have a Framework 13 which I nastily dropped and bent as a result. One bottom cover order and replacement later it's as good as new.

I think the Framework model is absolutely positive for the industry, so long as it keeps working. If they go out of business in a year, or get sold to some profit maximizing group that disrupts the model, then yeah, at that point it may become a negative. In my opinion this is the risk for this company and this product model.

Giving them a small investment is not an ownership stake. And hardly groundbreaking at 200k.

They're providing a product in a niche. Good for them.

You don’t have to buy an extra mainboard. The $850 laptop package includes it.

You’re not paying a premium for the design/modularity, you’re paying a premium because they’re a new innovative smaller company. If they get really big, they’ll become cheaper.

Also, buying an expensive Framework, then a cheap upgrade, is less expensive than buying two reasonably priced machines.

framework laptops have been great for me. accidentally stepped on my laptop getting out of bed and completely broke the screen. got a replacement one shipped to me in a week and replaced it myself in about 10 minutes!

As a current owner of a Framework laptop, the easy repairability is so important. I have already fixed 3 small issues myself, not only is that good for the environment it's also good for my wallet

Reasons I bought one and will again: repairability, build quality, supporting a cool concept financially.

I don't especially expect to upgrade much before having to replace the whole chassis. Except maybe memory or storage which isn't that hard with most laptops (though it's way easier with Framework).

You are doing some pretty serious mental gymnastics to find issues with Framework. Most parts are open sourced and easy to get ahold of. The parts availability and ease of replacement are lightyears beyond what most companies do. The replaceable ports are not restricted to buying theirs, many people have dedigned and built their own cheap ports and open sourced them. Try buying a laptop from any other manufacturer, and attempt to replace anything. You will be in a world of struggle. You can almost build an entire Framework directly from their marketplace. Oh, ans having stakes in a company does not mean ownership.

It won't make sense in the first purchase. It will start to make sense when you want to upgrade and don't have to throw the whole thing out or when something breaks and you can easily and cheaply fix it.

I don't think you need to be that worried about "tightening control to the likes of Apple". Given that they encourage people build their own cases for the motherboards, design and 3d print custom expansion cards, I won't be surprised if some 3rd party designs a whole new motherboard to fit in their chassis since the size is supposed to be standard. Iirc, Louis Rossman did do a video on them in the past that confirmed Framework would be willing to work with repair shops to provide them the schematics that they are able to provide to aid in repairs.

On the other topic, I agree that most people won't be needing to swap out parts that often. But that's also the beauty of modularity though. You buy the parts that you actually need and nothing else. Framework can sell the exact same chassis that still fills the need for different people who have different needs for ports. And since they're supposed to reuse the same chassis down the line, you are almost guaranteed to have parts still be available multiple generations after, unlike modern laptops where parts would be much harder to find after a couple of hardware refreshes.

Framework is still a niche product, thus they will definitely still be much more expensive than regular laptops due to scale and whatnot. Most people would be better off buying those tbh. But if you care about upgradability or repairability multiple years after purchase, I think they're still worth considering.

1. I'm old enough to have been down this road a dozen times, and it has always ended in tears. The ones I bought into either came into the market too early, too beta, or too late, or just weren't able to see it through or abandoned hope mid journey.

2. I think it has a great chance to be a great thing.

Why? The magic isn't the Framework Ecosystem. It's one thing, un-crapified modularity. The reason most of us can afford to keep a car working isn't because of the great Mazda or Ford ecosystem of parts. Its because the un-crapified modularity of those parts. The designs are "open" (they're not in the libré sense, but they are simple re-make or recreate ). That is why most of us can keep our cars going. If I need a headlight, or an alternator, or a throttle-position sensor, not only does Mazda make/have the part, there are a dozen other people who make the part. I not only get a replacement, but I get choices in a open market in a range of prices and qualities.
I imagine in 2032, even if the company Framework has disappeared, there will be a lady in New Jersey making inexpensive replacement modules. That is a 'good thing'.

Its no accident everything on an Apple device is soldered down. If they made cars they'd grind down all the bolt heads and embed the engine in epoxy. It's their ethos. If my macbook ssd goes bad, all they can do for me is sell me a new one. The beauty of the Framework is that each module can be replaced. So no, the typical user is not going to completely upgrade their laptop in 8 years. (but they could) But, most will want to replace that one broken part on their otherwise perfectly good laptop. Another way to think about it, lets say I have a 10 year old car, worth $5k. To replace every part might truly cost me $35,000. But the way chance works, it's rate to actually need to replace every part. And the parts that need replacing are usually relatively inexpensive.

Some years ago Consumer Reports Magazine had a section where they'd list the costs of all the replacement parts of a new car. Was interesting. IIRC it was about 4x the cost of the car.

The GPU module is actually an industry standard created by... Dell, I think? So that, at least, is technically non-proprietary.

Either way, Framework has been open about specs and has encouraged a cottage industry of third party bespoke mods and modules for its laptops. I wouldn't worry to much about that.

They are great.

I plan to get one soon. The largest value I see is in a company that cares about your right to repair and open sourcing their components so anyone can make parts easily. They also have a hardware killswitch for the camera. Also I hope to see more options for Coreboot which seems likely. If people actually care about e-waste too this seems (I haven't looked into their manufacturing deeply) like a way to not add as much trash into the environment and not waste as much material in this age of consumerism and wastefulness. Of course the upgradeability is a welcome change to the laptop market and they have official support for some Linux distros

I think it's a nice enough idea, and I hope it sets a reasonable baseline for what enthusiast and workstation laptops will be as the entabletification of the mainstream computing device continues, but right now it's sort of a solution waiting for its problem. Economically, it doesn't make much sense for one person to buy one. In an actuarial sense, it's almost certainly better to buy something you like that's less modular, and replace it if it breaks or stops being useful for your intended tasks. Of course if no one who wishes them well buys their computers, they won't last long enough to be relevant.

Strictly speaking, just standardizing and providing the physical specifications ends up making their dongles more like headers on a desktop motherboard, potentially a commodity piece that anyone could replicate. Their other modular components seem to have a similar idea. It all seems elegant enough, and ready to "backscale" into a distributed niche industry if the big companies stop making powerful proprietary machines at the scale that keeps them cheap. As it stands, they sort of ARE de facto proprietary, but I guess the idea is that there will be enough enthusiasts, hardware hackers, and evangelists paying a sizeable, but not crippling, premium to keep them afloat and gain the mindshare to become a new standard (and hopefully halo brand) when people need to build laptops like they build towers now.

It sounds like there could be some changes made to the initial hardware/design to make it work better out-of-the-box, but the modularity concept is a good one, IMO. It's still a new concept, so things are going to be expensive at first and the issues can be worked out over time. Might not be something to pick up right now with the current models for many (including me), but there is potential in the idea down the road as things like the hubs/ports and other hardware quirks get worked out.

I've not used them, but I watched a teardown and assembly. Looked like a great experience, when I compare it to the 30+ screws to replace a iBook hard drive.