This is really a great idea! Congrats to the team.
I didn't read the entire text, but here's my question: do you have in your plans to ship worldwide.
The Framework Laptop
201–210 of 1001 posts
Re: The Framework Laptop
#202I know trackpads won, but would love a trackpoint. I keep buying Thinkpads solely for that feature.
How do I scroll a page up and down with a trackpoint (on Windows and Linux)? I've tried using a trackpoint, but the two-finger swipe up and down on a trackpad is a convenience that I cannot seem to live without.
there’s a scroll button iirc. You hold it down, and the trackpoint scrolls instead of moving the cursor.
Re: The Framework Laptop
#203Hints of the Sandbenders stuff from gibson's Idoru. But like the modular smartphone products (fairphone, essential phone, etc) probably doomed to failure.
Re: The Framework Laptop
#204What is really needed is a common chassis. A common carcass that allows me the put whatever I want inside it. If I want a pinebook[1], I want to be able to put pinebook guts inside it, if I want a mnt reform[2], I want to be able to put mnt reform guts inside it. Too bad eoma68[3] is still sci-fi. [1] https://www.pine64.org/pinebook-pro/ [2] https://mntre.com/media/reform_md/2020-05-08-the-much-more-p... [3] https://…
> What is really needed is a common chassis. I agree. I understand why that wasn't a thing 10 years ago while laptops continued to get thinner and bezels continued to get smaller and I/O was rapidly changing and evolving. Modern laptops are much more consistent, and standards like M.2 and USB-C have provide excellent support for low-profile expansion. Now seems like a great time to start rolling out standards for lap…
That's not where the money is though unfortunately. It's why manufacturers like the solder on components. Easier to manufacture and make as small as possible. I hate it, and think it's bad for consumers.
Re: The Framework Laptop
#205One of the repair challenges is access to old parts. The drain hose on our three year-old washer sprung a leak. When I called a repair man, he at first said that Samsung doesn't make that part anymore. Fortunately, he was mistaken, but if that's something that happens for a simple hose, imagine trying to replace the "high-end headphone amp" expansion card on this laptop five years from now. Even if I'm not too excite…
It is definitely on us to prove that we'll provide long term support for the modules that we're developing, but we're also opening up documentation and reference designs for things like our Expansion Card system. If something ever happens to us, other companies and the community can continue to use and extend the ecosystem. We designed the Expansion Cards in a way that it's possible to 3D print the housings for them…
> We designed the Expansion Cards in a way that it's possible to 3D print the housings for them on a home 3D printer and get PCBs fabbed through the normal hobby channels.
That's a bold and brave move. Well done.
Re: The Framework Laptop
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
There used to be a pretty standard adapter card for laptops. I had an "ethernet modem card" from ibm in that form factor that worked well. And a scsi adapter for a zip drive I think. Its been a while... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Card
It would be really cool if they had just made a laptop that accepted PCMCIA cards, and then made a bunch of new PCMCIA cards.
The more recent choice would have been ExpressCard, but that standard was never updated beyond PCIe 2.0 x1 and USB 5Gbit/s. But the bigger problem with both ExpressCard and PCMCIA is that the cards are long—those form factors date back to an era where expansion cards needed a lot more PCB space than they do now. ExpressCard 34 is 70/75mm long, compared to a typical client WiFi card that's M.2 22x30mm. It's quite impractical to have ExpressCard slots on both sides of the machine.
I don't think it would have worked well to try to make a hot-swappable externally-facing card form factor derived from M.2. Likewise, cutting EDSFF E1.S down to a third of the length wouldn't leave any provision for USB or DisplayPort signals. USB-C is clearly the best available connector choice among current standards.
Re: The Framework Laptop
#207I don't see any information on the licensing of the adapter card / inter-module interfaces. Can others build a Framework laptop without approval? Can others build cards without approval? Will it be a platform? Tell me how this isn't a Nespresso machine for silicon pods. :-) Edit: To be clear, even a "we have a generic base laptop and you can pick your I/O" concept is potentially a nice value prop, but it'd be good if…
We will be releasing specifications and reference designs for the Expansion Card system under a permissive license. We want to make it easy for both other companies and members of the community to develop their own cards and sell them through the Framework Marketplace. That is something we'll be detailing and sharing between now and the time we start shipping out the product. We'll also provide documentation around i…
>We want to make it easy for both other companies and members of the community to develop their own cards and sell them through the Framework Marketplace.
What if they don't want to sell through the Framework Marketplace?
Re: The Framework Laptop
#208Earlier 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.
Yes, I remember being particularly disappointed when Google's Project Ara [1] to create a modular mobile phone was shelved. It seemed like a fantastic idea, and I truly thought that Alphabet/Google had the cash/clout - and will - to deliver. Still, I haven't lost my optimism just yet. As you say, good luck to Framework with the laptop project. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Ara
I too wanted to see this work, but I was skeptical. Maybe it's just too ahead of its time?
Re: The Framework Laptop
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is definitely on us to prove that we'll provide long term support for the modules that we're developing, but we're also opening up documentation and reference designs for things like our Expansion Card system. If something ever happens to us, other companies and the community can continue to use and extend the ecosystem. We designed the Expansion Cards in a way that it's possible to 3D print the housings for them…
GPIO cards on a modern laptop? Sign me up!!!
Yes! Actually, one of the first cards we built internally is a little Arduino-compatible one with a SAMD21 microcontroller and an external-facing 0.1" pin header for GPIO.
Re: The Framework Laptop
#210How much linux support are you going to be providing?
Eg S3 sleep and fingerprint sensor drivers?