Framework Won't Be Just a Laptop Company Anymore (theverge.com) 29
Today, Framework is the modular repairable laptop company. Tomorrow, it wants to be a consumer electronics company, period. From a report: That's one of the biggest reasons it just raised another $18 million in funding -- it wants to expand beyond the laptop into "additional product categories." Framework CEO Nirav Patel tells me that has always been the plan. The company originally had other viable ideas beyond laptops, too. "We chose to take on the notebook space first," he says, partly because Framework knew it could bootstrap its ambitions by catering to the PC builders and tinkerers and Linux enthusiasts left behind by big OEMs -- and partly because it wanted to go big or go home.
If Framework could succeed in laptops, he thought, it would be able to build almost anything. After five years building laptops, what might Framework add to the portfolio? Patel won't say -- I only get the barest hints, no matter how many different ways I ask. He won't even say if they'll make less or more of a splash than laptops. Framework might choose an "equally difficult" category or might instead try something "a bit smaller and simpler to execute, streamlined now that we have all this infrastructure."
If Framework could succeed in laptops, he thought, it would be able to build almost anything. After five years building laptops, what might Framework add to the portfolio? Patel won't say -- I only get the barest hints, no matter how many different ways I ask. He won't even say if they'll make less or more of a splash than laptops. Framework might choose an "equally difficult" category or might instead try something "a bit smaller and simpler to execute, streamlined now that we have all this infrastructure."
Nice idea (Score:2)
Re: Nice idea (Score:1)
Dell still makes repairable laptops and zero-tool hardware for their business line as does Lenovo and others. The question is not, do you want repairable, the question is do you want to pay for it. For businesses, yes, swapping out a hard drive quickly is generally worth it, for consumer end stuff, theyâ(TM)d rather save $200 and use the warranty period, by the time something breaks, the low end stuff is already years old at the time of purchase (current offerings at the bottom end are uniformly 10th-1
Re: (Score:2)
Framework is not so much about upgrades as it is about repair and modularity. The idea is that a lot of laptops are written off as a total loss after minor damage (whether from component failure or accident) because they are too hard to repair.
I have next to me a perfectly serviceable laptop that had a piece of the display hinge and mounting frame break. It works, but opening and closing the screen is an ordeal and each cycle damages it further.
I got a Framework instead. A replacement display hinge for it i
Re: (Score:3)
>And nobody really upgrades a laptop.
Because it's almost impossible to do with unique form factor for each laptop. But a lot of people update their desktops. Because those are standardized around things like ATX. You can just buy a new GPU and drop it in. New memory and drop it in. New CPU and just drop it in. New motherboard, CPU and memory, but keep all the hard drives and GPU. Etc.
And so people do that quite a lot. For many of the nerdier types, our desktop is probably a frankensteinian amalgam of old
Re: (Score:2)
I tried to significantly upgrade the CPU in an AMD-based netbook that I really, really liked... it was 64 bit, but it was single core, and I was just trying to get it into the prior era at the time really and just get it to be a dual-core. And in theory this was possible and I even did it, but it was unreliable AF and I stalled out at the BIOS hacking stage and just got some other used thing. And now I have a $300 HP (I know ugh) Ryzen 3 laptop which... I doubled the RAM and quadrupled the SSD in. Remarkabl
Project Ara (Score:2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Google's abandoned modular phone concept.
The slick concept combined with the utter economic impracticality made it very cool. Be interested if someone could actually make it succeed, regardless of if it's a good idea or now
If they don't want THIS, what ELSE do they not..? (Score:4, Insightful)
"If Framework could succeed in laptops, he thought, it would be able to[--]"
STOP. Stop, Dummy. To put it in terms I can only hope you understand: Make sure the IF part is true before you start doing what's between the braces.
Re: (Score:2)
More to the point, the "else" part is dubious too.
If Framework could succeed in laptops, he thought, it would be able to build almost anything.
Pretty sure the "almost anything" bit is a HUGE stretch. Cars? Spaceships? etc..
More likely, they want to expand into other areas as a hedge against relying solely on building laptops, especially more expensive ones, for revenue.
Re: (Score:2)
It's more like "For Framework to succeed in Laptops, they need a secondary revenue stream of cheaply made headphones and speakers."
It's actually a trivial problem to make a Bluetooth speaker have a replaceable battery, so I'm all for it. You wouldn't believe how insanely hard these things can be to open and repair just to change the battery, and for no good reason. They're really designed to be actively hostile to anyone trying to repair them. For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
my framework (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I've got OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (the rolling release version) on mine, because apparently I want some combo of stable and pre-release?
Works great, required some tweaking here and there (OpenSUSE isn't officially supported; Kubuntu on my previous laptop required tweaking too). Very happy that I'll be able to replace the keyboard/battery/whatever dies on it or gets killed due to accidents... there are dogs in my house, and I seem to drop a laptop every five or so years...
I really wish my phone was this easy to r
HF communications receiver (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Honestly that's where I'm at with this. I have a General license, but the only reason myself and my friends did this was to have high-power radios in areas where there is no cell service, with the added benefit of being able to hit distant repeaters for emergencies. We've gotten tons of use on the first point, but fortunately never had an emergency for the latter.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd just like the amateur radio manufacturers to all agree on one programming standard. I want to be able to fire up Chirp and send the same stored frequency list to all of my radios using a regular USB connection.
To the point of HF, any affordable solution would be a winner, but in the end we're just WAY too small of a market in general.
Get house in order first (Score:3)
I just read an article that pointed out that Framework's software has fallen way behind with BIOS patches/fixes/updates being the hardest hit. Sounds like the company needs to mature a bit more before venturing off into other areas.
Re: (Score:3)
Exactly this. They also have situations where some firmware for products they sell requires running Windows long enough to install it. Kind of annoying if you are buying for Linux or *BSD use.
I bought a laptop last year that I absolutely hate. I was trying to save money over a framework or thinkpad. Big mistake. I'd like to see them get the bios issues resolved so I can consider one to replace this POS HP Victus.
Re: (Score:2)
The BIOS issues are overblown, and mostly present for an older mainboard. The new ones (Zen 4 AMD) work great -- mine runs Fedora perfectly out of the box.
Re: (Score:2)
While your risk tolerance might be low, I want security updates to my bios.
Re: (Score:2)
And there are, in fact, security updates -- including a very recent one:
https://knowledgebase.frame.wo... [frame.work]
Re: (Score:1)
Taking bet on modular NAS (Score:2)
Phone please (Score:2)
Sounds good, how about a landscape slider phone? My F(x)tec Pro1 is getting a bit long in the tooth...
Distractions are great for quality (Score:2)
You know, whenever I want a good product to get better, the first thing I do is ask the people making that product to make an entirely different product. The result is always awesome.
> what might Framework add to the portfolio? Patel won’t say — I only get the barest hints, no matter how many different ways I ask.
So this article is basically completely empty aside from one big "tease" to advertise the name of the company.
repairable phone with free software (Score:1)
the world STILL needs a smart phone that runs on free software, not google's enshittified android