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The Framework Laptop

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Re: The Framework Laptop

#211

Post by jdxcode »

ppezaris wrote: post #195
XorNot wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple burns almost all of their space savings on making the machine thinner, to the point of absurdity. Apple is content to push everything into dongles (which you have to carry around anyway) to get it thinner. The point at which I can't have a wired RJ45 ethernet port is already ridiculous - that is not a thick connector. Same with fullsize USB ports. Battery life there are hard limits as well: nobody is making a l…

I'm sorry who is using RJ45 ports on a laptop these days? Seems like that question was asked and answered years ago, and wifi has won.

I would say I run into a situation where I dig my RJ45 dongle out of my bag once per year still. Usually if I'm in a different office or trying to fix Wifi or something.

For me the dongle is annoying but probably sufficient.

I've also worked in offices where the Ethernet was better because it didn't require VPN access and was more reliable, but in those situations I plugged it into my monitor rather than directly into the laptop.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#212

Post by gertrunde »

XorNot wrote: post #90
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're just USB-C dongles that snap into the chassis.. You can see better shots here: https://frame.work This is an unpopular opinion, but I think this proves that Apple was right to dump legacy ports. This solution is sort of clever but it sacrifices a ton of internal space that could have been spent on a bigger battery. USB-C, and the correct cables, are all anyone needs. (the Nespresso analogy is ridiculous, a la…

Apple burns almost all of their space savings on making the machine thinner, to the point of absurdity. Apple is content to push everything into dongles (which you have to carry around anyway) to get it thinner. The point at which I can't have a wired RJ45 ethernet port is already ridiculous - that is not a thick connector. Same with fullsize USB ports. Battery life there are hard limits as well: nobody is making a l…

Agreed, the point when I start to have to choose any two of usb-tethered phone / usb to ethernet / usb to wifi headset / usb to serial really gets infuriating.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#213

Post by msla »

ppezaris wrote: post #195
XorNot wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple burns almost all of their space savings on making the machine thinner, to the point of absurdity. Apple is content to push everything into dongles (which you have to carry around anyway) to get it thinner. The point at which I can't have a wired RJ45 ethernet port is already ridiculous - that is not a thick connector. Same with fullsize USB ports. Battery life there are hard limits as well: nobody is making a l…

I'm sorry who is using RJ45 ports on a laptop these days? Seems like that question was asked and answered years ago, and wifi has won.

> I'm sorry who is using RJ45 ports on a laptop these days?

Everyone who understands collision domains.

Everyone who understands bandwidth.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#214

Post by jdxcode »

bombcar wrote: post #158
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are ultra-slim foldable RJ-45 connectors[1], which manufacturers could use if they could be bothered but they don't, because they would rather save the BOM cost of it and advertise the WiFi capabilities instead. Only Fujitsu use them AFAIK. [1] https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/8/16750574/p...

I don't see how that DOESN'T get broken on the second use, honestly.

One careless snag of the cable would have to rip the aluminum apart I would think

Re: The Framework Laptop

#215

Post by auxym »

ppezaris wrote: post #195
XorNot wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple burns almost all of their space savings on making the machine thinner, to the point of absurdity. Apple is content to push everything into dongles (which you have to carry around anyway) to get it thinner. The point at which I can't have a wired RJ45 ethernet port is already ridiculous - that is not a thick connector. Same with fullsize USB ports. Battery life there are hard limits as well: nobody is making a l…

I'm sorry who is using RJ45 ports on a laptop these days? Seems like that question was asked and answered years ago, and wifi has won.

I've worked in many companies (both software and non-software) where ethernet was the only way to access the corporate network.

One had WiFi that only gave internet access, the other had no WiFi at all (in 2017).

Re: The Framework Laptop

#216

Post by km3r »

ppezaris wrote: post #195
XorNot wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple burns almost all of their space savings on making the machine thinner, to the point of absurdity. Apple is content to push everything into dongles (which you have to carry around anyway) to get it thinner. The point at which I can't have a wired RJ45 ethernet port is already ridiculous - that is not a thick connector. Same with fullsize USB ports. Battery life there are hard limits as well: nobody is making a l…

I'm sorry who is using RJ45 ports on a laptop these days? Seems like that question was asked and answered years ago, and wifi has won.

I use mine nowadays, because my room is just far enough from the access point for occasion zoom drops. The 'better' solution would have probably been to put an access point right in my room, but I already have an RJ45 dongle + ethernet cord and I trust a cable connection to have less drops than wifi.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#217

Post by sleepybrett »

lovelyviking wrote: post #155
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're just USB-C dongles that snap into the chassis.. You can see better shots here: https://frame.work This is an unpopular opinion, but I think this proves that Apple was right to dump legacy ports. This solution is sort of clever but it sacrifices a ton of internal space that could have been spent on a bigger battery. USB-C, and the correct cables, are all anyone needs. (the Nespresso analogy is ridiculous, a la…

>I think this proves that Apple was right to dump legacy ports. How it proves it? Those guys do not drop ports, they just make them modular. All the "saved space" in Apple laptops become amazingly wasted space in your bag with tons of adapters and wires. I still dream to meet the one who made such 'wise' decision to tell him what I think about it personally! >USB-C, and the correct cables, are all anyone needs. I am…

I'm down to exactly one adapter in my bag. One usb-c male to usb-a female stubby little guy.

If I'm heading to someplace where I think I might need more than 1 usb-a port or a situation where I might need a bit of a usb hub I just pack this little 'dock dongle' that's about three inches long and an inch wide that has three usb-a ports (2x3.0 1x2.0), an hdmi port, a sd and tf card slot, an ethernet port, an audio jack, and a usb-c power input port... cost me all of 60$.

Re: The Framework Laptop

#218

Post by f6v »

kieranl wrote: post #65
f6v wrote: post #40

> with the ability to choose Windows or install your preferred Linux distribution. 10$ says it’s going to be quite an effort to run Linux on it. Nice idea though.

Kieran from Framework Here - Using it as my main machine for development running Ubuntu 20.04 right now. The main tweak is running a mainline kernel with some distributions as Tigerlake support is new.

Don’t get me wrong, it’d be great to have a good Linux laptop on the market. However, I’ve read too many Dell XPS reviews to stay on Mac(which is suboptimal due to the nature of my work). There’s always something that is misbehaving on Linux laptops: WiFi, the sleep mode(i.e. you open the laptop and it’s ready to work), touchpad, fingerprint reader. Maybe it’s too much to ask, but i) is your laptop MacBook-level smooth on Linux ii) how could you achieve it when big players with much more resources failed?

Re: The Framework Laptop

#219

Post by arcturus17 »

offtop5 wrote: post #192
arcturus17 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've got the street cred but producing and marketing hardware is so damn hard. Ouya and the Essential phone are two cases that immediately spring to mind where the founding teams were credible, but the products ended up being massive flops. Good luck to them anyway. The idea is cool and I think if I were on the lookout for a Linux laptop and they delivered on their quality promise, I'd consider them.

I think the problem here is you have two complicated things to solve, both hardware and software and you're trying to do it with out too much money. A small hardware project on its own might be doable.

Yea I agree the scope is more manageable than the examples I mentioned.

But even then, they're tackling a very hard problem. Branding, manufacturing, quality assurance, distribution... So many things can go wrong.

I'm not making a prediction but I'm with Ars Technica in the "healthy skeptic" camp. I do hope they beat the odds.

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