[HN Gopher] Framework Laptop Mainboard
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Framework Laptop Mainboard
        
       Author : hecanjog
       Score  : 972 points
       Date   : 2022-04-19 21:43 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | ryukafalz wrote:
       | This is incredibly cool. Love to see anything that encourages
       | repair and reuse of parts that still have some life left in them!
       | 
       | If I hadn't just recently bought a new laptop I'd likely be going
       | for a Framework today, and provided they're still around when
       | it's time for an upgrade it'll probably be my next laptop. (I
       | suspect it'll be a while before I need a new one though.)
        
       | peatmoss wrote:
       | I've gotten into handtool woodworking somewhat deeply this year,
       | and this is giving me serious desires to create a wooden chassis
       | for something... retro.
        
         | mappu wrote:
         | The EOMA68 project had some similar goals to Framework and had
         | an optional wooden chassis:
         | https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop
         | 
         | They haven't had much activity in the last few years though,
         | and the compute card for it is now very outdated.
        
         | user123456780 wrote:
         | I have an old metal break in the garage I have been meaning to
         | make a laptop chassis out of copper or brass. I think it would
         | be dope to have a unique looking steam-punkish designed laptop
        
           | peatmoss wrote:
           | Hand-made has given me a new perspective on opulence. Maybe
           | it's just the Ikea effect on overdrive, but making the things
           | you want is so satisfying in terms of the process, and the
           | one-of-a-kind results can be really prideful.
        
       | ge96 wrote:
       | Side note, I think the STL viewer in github is such a cool
       | feature
        
         | disqard wrote:
         | TIL -- thank you for pointing that out!
        
       | pharmakom wrote:
       | Surprised to see the prebuilt laptops come with windows. I was
       | expecting Ubuntu or some other mainstream Linux distro.
       | 
       | I assume a large segment of users install Linux? How does the
       | trackpad experience compare to macOS?
        
         | pjerem wrote:
         | I think they just wouldn't have had the same press coverage in
         | the tech press if they were selling a "Reparable Linux laptop"
         | instead of a "Reparable laptop".
         | 
         | For the general public, it's not obvious that an OS can be
         | changed.
        
         | nrp wrote:
         | We ship the DIY Edition without an OS to let folks bring their
         | preferred distro. We looked at doing a pre-built SKU with a
         | Linux distro, but found that preference is fairly even among
         | the top five or so most popular distros with a long tail of
         | distros beyond that. We recently launched a Linux compatibility
         | page to make it easier for folks to select a distro for their
         | DIY Edition: https://frame.work/linux
        
       | TheMagicHorsey wrote:
       | Wow, these guys are awesome. Love to see a company take a new,
       | and potentially long view towards customers and profitability.
       | Most companies in their position would be jealously guarding this
       | information and would be paranoid about cheap clones taking away
       | their market/customers. But this team is not.
       | 
       | Shows they are confident in their ability to not just rest on
       | laurels, but continue to develop a platform, add value, and earn
       | their customers business.
       | 
       | Now, if only we could get a lovely M1 Pro chip (or something like
       | it) into their deserving hands! At the moment my Mac 16 Pro is
       | unbelievably better than all the x86 competition out there ...
       | except for the fact that its a totally proprietary and
       | unrepairable black box.
       | 
       | I would love to see AMD, Nvidia, or a company like SiFive release
       | something like the M1 Pro, and then an integrator like Framework
       | put it all into a great package and finally give Apple the
       | competition they need.
        
       | noveltyaccount wrote:
       | The 3D printable, open-source, case that allows you to use the
       | mainboard as a standalone computer is such a nice touch!
       | https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/Mainboard/tree/main/Mec...
        
       | praveenhm wrote:
       | It would be interesting if you can build something like Mac
       | Studio desktop for linux.
        
         | Flankk wrote:
         | I mean, you can build your own with any Mini-ITX motherboard.
         | The only thing is you don't have the tight integration of
         | soldered RAM, the quality slave-assembled parts, and the two
         | years of faster speed before lowering performance for power
         | consumption reasons.
        
       | nivenkos wrote:
       | The Framework pricing seems crazy, it'd cost about 2400 euros to
       | get it in my country (where it isn't sold directly atm). That's
       | over 2 months of discretionary spending (net income after
       | mortgage + student debt).
       | 
       | And it doesn't offer an ISO keyboard either.
       | 
       | For 2400 euros I could almost buy a whole computer, TV and an
       | Xbox...
        
         | spoonjim wrote:
         | The prices are more comparably reasonable in the US, but still
         | on the expensive side compared to Apple because they don't have
         | the economies of scale. Important thing to realize is that the
         | Framework laptop is a super-premium piece of hardware. Holding
         | it and using it the quality level is better than anything other
         | than an Apple laptop.
        
         | ahaferburg wrote:
         | I don't understand why you'd write "my country". How is that
         | supposed to mean anything to anybody. Why not write which
         | country it is?
        
         | sirkiller wrote:
         | If it's not sold directly, how would they be able to control
         | the pricing? Framework starts at 1149 EUR for the base spec,
         | the DIY version starts at 899 EUR. A MacBook Pro starts at 1449
         | EUR, seems fair to me.
        
         | cge wrote:
         | They certainly do offer ISO-ish keyboards (with the exception
         | of the unfortunate arrow key layout, which breaks 9995-5), as
         | I'm typing on one right now. They don't offer them pre-
         | installed for US orders, if you're looking there; try looking
         | on their EU site instead. In the US, however, you can order the
         | keyboards separately for around $40; the case is designed to
         | support both ISO and ANSI layouts with the same cutouts.
         | 
         | As another commenter has pointed out, there is the quirk,
         | however, that their "English International" keyboard is ANSI.
         | Their British, German, French, etc keyboards are.
        
       | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
       | Oh, that's cool - so you could use the mainboard as a SBC? Put a
       | few of them in a case with a (big) PSU and some I/O (storage,
       | probably) and have a cluster-in-a-box?
       | 
       | Or, in the opposite direction, is this material enough to create
       | a drop-in replacement board with, say, an ARM (or eventually
       | RISC-V) processor that you could put in a Framework Laptop?
        
         | nrp wrote:
         | This release is aimed more at the former. We're happy to
         | connect with and support anyone who wants to make a serious
         | attempt at a drop-in replacement board though, and would use
         | that exercise to create more documentation to share publicly.
        
           | Scramblejams wrote:
           | I'm looking forward to people putting Steam Deck motherboards
           | into Frameworks...
        
             | yellowapple wrote:
             | Or Framework motherboards into even more ludicrously large
             | Steam Decks.
        
       | fernandogrd wrote:
       | The blog post has more information:
       | https://frame.work/blog/mainboard-availability-and-open-sour...
        
       | wormer wrote:
       | I would buy this laptop once my current laptop dies (don't want
       | to produce unnecessary e-waste) if it had coreboot. Until then,
       | I'm planning to use system76. I'm conflicted between that though,
       | because I want to support small business, but I'm not sure which
       | one to support!
        
         | riyadh144 wrote:
         | You cannot go wrong with either, I have been very happy with my
         | system76 laptop, One company is open source hardware the other
         | is open source software. I wish both could cooperate and do
         | some great work.
        
       | CalRobert wrote:
       | I'm 3 days in to using a Framework running Ubuntu as my main
       | computer, switching from an XPS 13. So far, I'm delighted. Thank
       | you for making this computer.
        
         | ibz wrote:
         | I'm a few days away. Waiting for my Framework to arrive. I
         | probably have never been this excited about a laptop in my
         | whole life.
        
         | shriek wrote:
         | Don't let battery drain scare you like it did to me. There is a
         | workaround that alleviates that a little with deep sleep mode
         | on. Although, not perfect it's bearable. Aside from that I've
         | been a happy customer for a solid 5 months now.
         | 
         | Random aside, just last week one of my friend's kid dropped
         | some sticky food on keyboard and closed the lid leaving my
         | keyboard virtually unusable. I was able to just unscrew
         | everything and clean the keyboard and get it to working again.
         | Would have never been possible with Macs. :D
        
       | bobsmooth wrote:
       | Was looking forward to this. Excited to see what people can make
       | with an easily available high powered SBC.
        
       | nicolas_t wrote:
       | I wish I could justify buying a laptop from Framework because I
       | like what they do and would like to support them.
        
       | cbrogrammer wrote:
       | will this laptop ever ship with a non-US keyboard layout? The
       | enter key is so bad on them, I hate that it is long and not high.
       | Dealbreaker unfortunately, wish I could buy one of these.
        
         | GrantZvolsky wrote:
         | As with other manufacturers, keyboard availability is
         | determined by the region. If you import one from the UK, you'll
         | have different keyboard options.
         | 
         | On top of that, the US marketplace has different keyboards
         | available[1]: https://frame.work/marketplace/keyboards
         | 
         | [1]: if you're getting a redirect, switch your region to US
        
         | nrp wrote:
         | As noted by other commentors, we have a wide range of keyboards
         | currently available with the laptop, including ISO ones. In the
         | UK and countries in the EU we currently ship to, we have
         | British English, French, and German, which are all ISO, and
         | English International which is ANSI. In the US and Canada, you
         | can also swap to any of those keyboards, plus a few others like
         | French Canadian by picking up a keyboard in our Marketplace.
        
         | GrantZvolsky wrote:
         | If anyone from Framework is reading this: It appears as though
         | the image[1] accompanying the US International keyboard on the
         | US Framework Marketplace[2] is inaccurate. It seems to be an
         | ANSI keyboard with the word 'gr' crudely photoshopped into the
         | right alt key. This is most likely a mistake, as the term 'US
         | International' typically refers to an ISO keyboard. I would
         | humbly suggest that Framework correct the image and clarify
         | whether the keyboard in question is ISO or ANSI.
         | 
         | [1]: https://frame.work/marketplace/keyboards
         | 
         | [2]: https://frame.work/products/keyboard?v=FRANBKEN05
        
           | nrp wrote:
           | Our English International keyboard is indeed ANSI. The two
           | differences are "Alt Gr" and a euro symbol (which is missing
           | from that image, and which I've just captured as a bug
           | internally). This is the keyboard layout most popularly used
           | in the Netherlands.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | b0m wrote:
       | How to get an invoice?
       | 
       | For some strange reason it's still not possible to get an invoice
       | and people and businesses are having issues with that.
       | 
       | https://community.frame.work/t/how-to-get-an-invoice/16033/
       | 
       | https://community.frame.work/t/where-can-i-find-my-invoice/1...
        
         | emptyfile wrote:
         | ha ha... what? how is it even legal for goods without invoice
         | to enter the EU?
        
           | tecleandor wrote:
           | I guess it's similar as when you buy through eBay or
           | something (only guessing, not justifying it)
           | 
           | Until a while ago it was notoriously difficult to get an
           | invoice when buying from Amazon Europe.
        
       | occamschainsaw wrote:
       | This might be a tangent. Do you have any plans for eink display
       | modules for the Framework laptop? I know it's a niche and the
       | eink panels are expensive, but it would be amazing for a portable
       | machine.
        
       | Karsteski wrote:
       | I would love to buy one of these and hack it into something
       | absurd, if only I had the money to burn!
       | 
       | Love what you're doing Framework, I will purchase one of your
       | products in the future for sure :)
        
       | btgeekboy wrote:
       | This announcement's quite neat on its own. But if the board had
       | an exposed PCIe connector, they'd be fantastic to build a SFF PC
       | around.
        
         | asojfdowgh wrote:
         | > I did a quick check with a TBT2 eGPU I have and it is
         | recognized. We can grab some newer GPU docks and test to
         | confirm they work. But yes should work.
         | 
         | > yes, tbt3/usb4 tops out at 32gbps, which is about the same as
         | pcie gen 3 x4 - so will not be the same speed as a x16 slot on
         | a desktop, but still plenty fast for a lot of use cases.
         | 
         | from the frame.work forums
         | 
         | so you practically have a PCIe slot/s available if you get an
         | adapter for them
        
           | btgeekboy wrote:
           | That's not as great as a typical x16 slot you'd find for a
           | native graphics card, and comes with all of the usual TB
           | baggage. But it's definitely an option for some other types
           | of cards.
        
       | warmwaffles wrote:
       | How long until we see someone cluster 10 of these in a 4U rack?
        
       | jotm wrote:
       | This is rather cool. I sometimes think about using a laptop
       | motherboard in a custom built case and pushing the CPU/GPU to
       | their limits (no bueno without that, BIOS must allow full
       | voltage/TPL control).
       | 
       | Is it practical? Maybe if you want a very thin/light/quiet
       | desktop that can run a long time on a built-in battery...
       | otherwise, just an interesting project and a way to reuse older
       | laptop boards.
        
       | kevinherron wrote:
       | I hope these guys are around long enough to put out a V2 and I
       | hope that V2 has some different screen options.
       | 
       | For me the resolution either needs to be ideal for 100% scaling
       | or for 200% scaling, nothing in between.
        
         | vlmutolo wrote:
         | I have the Framework, and I haven't noticed anything off with
         | the display's "in-between" resolution.
        
           | nikodunk wrote:
           | Same here. I'm using it with Fedora and wayland's 150% scaing
           | works perfectly nowadays.
        
             | jjice wrote:
             | Everything appears sharp? I had had issues with Ubuntu and
             | fractional scaling a while back with blur, but I'd elated
             | if this is something that's been worked out in wayland.
             | Come to think of it, wayland may have been fine, and xorg
             | was the issue. I'm forgetting at the moment.
        
           | juanci_to wrote:
           | I have one too, using it with Linux.
           | 
           | I'm using it with fractional scaling at 175% and I notice
           | that it's less sharp than with either 100% and 200%.
        
             | devn0ll wrote:
             | I use pop!_os 22.04 beta with wayland and fractional
             | scaling 125%. Some software needs to be told to use wayland
             | stuff, but otherwise it is sharp as a tack.
             | 
             | For instance: MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 firefox
        
       | cosmiccatnap wrote:
       | Big fan, few small things.
       | 
       | AMD models, and maybe even arm64 mainboards would be lit.
       | 
       | 16 inch variant, black and white options.
       | 
       | Oh, and if possible, coreboot please.
       | 
       | Keep up the good work, you have my money
        
       | nrp wrote:
       | I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has on this. This is an
       | initial set of documentation, and we'll prioritize
       | writing/creating more based on what is most useful to enable
       | Mainboard re-use.
        
         | clarkevans wrote:
         | I've got 2 questions unrelated to the mainboard.
         | 
         | Will a matte screen be supported?
         | 
         | Will a thinkpad style keyboard be available for the framework?
         | Raynaud's syndrome makes trackpad sensing poor.
        
         | sandreas wrote:
         | Did you ever consider ECC Memory support? This would make SOHO
         | workstations and storage appliances interesting to build with
         | your board...
        
           | wheybags wrote:
           | I don't think intel mobile CPUs support ecc
        
         | SSilver2k2 wrote:
         | Incredible work.
        
         | supermatt wrote:
         | Note that you'll need some fasteners to install everything (see
         | https://guides.frame.work/Guide/Fasteners+Guide/106 for all
         | fastener types)            - 5x Mainboard fasteners - M1.6
         | 1.5mm fastener with a 5.5mm diameter T5 head and 0.6mm thread
         | pitch       - 3x Audio Board and WiFi card fasteners - M2 3.0mm
         | fastener with a 4.5mm diameter T5 head and 0.7mm thread pitch
         | 
         | These arent ISO metric thread pitches. Why not use standard
         | fasteners? I cant find these to buy anywhere online (even with
         | different heads) - even your own website doesnt stock them...
         | 
         | EDIT: looks like im not the only one to ask - theres an
         | unanswered question on that guide since Apr 2 asking the same
         | thing.
        
           | nrp wrote:
           | This is most likely an error in our fasteners guide (which I
           | wrote, so it's on me). I just sanity checked one of the M2
           | fasteners with calipers, and it does indeed follow the ISO
           | standard 0.4mm pitch. We'll double check the numbers we
           | listed for pitch.
           | 
           | For the 3D printed cases, for simplicity we didn't design in
           | threaded inserts, so you can use self-tapping M2 or M1.6
           | fasteners with approximately the right length and head size
           | and it'll work.
        
             | supermatt wrote:
             | Thanks for checking - I thought it would be a strange thing
             | to do given the product messaging.
        
             | thot_experiment wrote:
             | I find under-sizing the holes a bit and hitting the screws
             | with a heat gun before picking them up with a magnetic
             | screwdriver and screwing them in works really well.
        
               | mschuster91 wrote:
               | Undersizing holes is just a brilliant way to ask for
               | cracks down the road.
        
               | pvillano wrote:
               | not if the screw melts the plastic, the same way heated
               | threaded insert would?
        
         | marius_k wrote:
         | When does it come available to the rest of EU?
        
         | thetinguy wrote:
         | Can it be used as a single board computer like a latte panda or
         | raspberry pi, once you supply thing like memory.
        
           | noveltyaccount wrote:
           | Yes, and they open-sourced a 3D-printable case just for that
           | purpose :) https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/Mainboard/tre
           | e/main/Mec...
        
           | JohnBooty wrote:
           | "We designed the Mainboard from the start as a standalone
           | module to make upgrades easy in the Framework Laptop and to
           | also work great as a high-performance single board computer"
        
         | quickcheck wrote:
         | Are there plans to release full schematics to help with board
         | level repair?
        
           | nrp wrote:
           | We're able to make schematics and board views available to
           | repair shops, but not to individual end users:
           | https://knowledgebase.frame.work/en_us/availability-of-
           | schem...
        
             | wiseleo wrote:
             | Disagree. Many people like me who don't operate a formal
             | shop have a Quick station and know what's Amtech flux. I
             | want access to schematics and boardviews. It is nonsense to
             | withhold them.
        
             | Syonyk wrote:
             | What is the definition of a "repair shop"?
             | 
             | I have, on my property, a standalone building in which I
             | engage in a variety of activities to include fairly deep
             | level repair of electronics. I have surface mount soldering
             | skills and equipment (hot air rework, magnification,
             | soldering tips), and documented surface mount work on my
             | blog.
             | 
             | But I'm not a "random corner computer shop that can replace
             | RAM."
             | 
             | Do I qualify, should I want schematics?
        
               | userbinator wrote:
               | Don't worry, if the history of all the laptops which
               | don't even have any schematics available officially is to
               | continue, they will be leaked soon enough.
        
             | CamperBob2 wrote:
             | <img src="stoppedreadingthere.jpg">
        
             | rkagerer wrote:
             | Why not?
        
               | gedy wrote:
               | Guessing so that Chinese clones don't flood market with
               | knockoffs?
        
               | yellowapple wrote:
               | They would do that anyway, publicly-available schematics
               | or no.
        
               | userbinator wrote:
               | A lot of existing (leaked) x86 mobo schematics are
               | already available to anyone who cares to look. I don't
               | think there's much "secret sauce" in a standard PC
               | anyway, at least at the component interconnect level;
               | it's almost like one of the worst-kept-secrets in the
               | industry. There is a _lot_ of commonality between all the
               | designs. They might differ in the exact parts they use
               | (e.g. VRM MOSFETs) but there 's only so many ways to make
               | something that works.
        
               | colejohnson66 wrote:
               | My first guess would be NDAs
        
               | stephen_g wrote:
               | I wouldn't expect so. All you get of third party parts on
               | the schematic is the names of the pins, and that
               | generally isn't kept secret. Sometimes the detailed
               | functional descriptions of each pin are, but generally
               | not anything you'd see from the schematic.
               | 
               | If you look at the Open Compute project, there's full
               | schematics available for boards that have far more
               | interesting parts than what would be on this.
        
               | userbinator wrote:
               | Intel has become notoriously secretive with their
               | documentation over the years, so I think that is very
               | much the issue here. The 8086/8 were very open, but they
               | started closing off little bits at a time after that.
               | "Appendix H" in the P5 era was the first major sign of
               | it. Bits and pieces have leaked out over time, but they
               | still want to keep a lot of it secret.
               | 
               | For comparison, someone has made an entire 386 PC
               | motherboard himself:
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29273829
               | 
               | I suspect there's enough information out there publicly
               | to do everything up to perhaps a PIII (Socket 370 era) or
               | thereabouts, but it starts being much harder beyond that.
        
             | unixfg wrote:
             | The link doesn't make clear why end users can't have access
             | to this.
        
         | rubynerd wrote:
         | This looks absolutely incredible, and given the supply issues
         | with Intel's NUCs, couldn't have come at a better time!
         | 
         | Do you have an estimate of when the Framework Marketplace will
         | be available for UK customers? Currently Marketplace links
         | redirect to the UK homepage, and is only accessible after
         | manually selecting "United States" as a country.
        
           | nrp wrote:
           | We're currently setting up the logistics infrastructure for
           | the Marketplace for UK and EU. We'll have waitlist
           | functionality open sooner so that you can at least browse the
           | product catalog though.
        
             | rubynerd wrote:
             | Amazing -- thank you!
             | 
             | The experience is a little rough with the redirect, and I'd
             | love it if I could put an email somewhere for a reminder
             | when it launches. Otherwise though I'm really looking
             | forward to ordering soon!
        
         | sras-me wrote:
         | Not exactly on this topic, but when can we hope you to start
         | shipping to India?
        
         | mewse-hn wrote:
         | No questions but I'm very impressed there is a 3D printed case
         | in this repository and it's designed for home 3D printers (ie.
         | split into smaller parts, printable without supports)
        
         | poser-boy wrote:
         | It's cool that the repo has 3D printable cases. But are there
         | any plans of officially making and selling a "ThinkPad killer"
         | chassis where the laptop is more durable, has TrackPoint, and
         | classic keyboard?
        
           | oogetyboogety wrote:
           | More durable being the key point here. Anecdotally I remember
           | reading horror stories once ppl upgrade about the cooling.
        
           | Scramblejams wrote:
           | +1. I badly want a modern interpretation of a Thinkpad that
           | is true to its IBM roots. 7 rows, trackpoint, 3 mouse
           | buttons, toughness, drain holes, and a silly amount of ports.
           | 
           | Edit: And I want my ThinkLight back! It's not enough to light
           | the keys from underneath -- the ThinkLight was great for
           | giving a little glow around the laptop to light the working
           | area up a bit when in a darkened room. I did a lot of
           | homework under a ThinkLight. And extra points if we can make
           | it shine in red!
        
           | commoner wrote:
           | I'd love to see a TrackPoint option, and so would many other
           | prospective customers.
           | 
           | https://community.frame.work/t/any-chance-of-trackpoint/1026
           | 
           | Lenovo is doing the opposite of what Framework is doing by
           | soldering down memory and making ThinkPads less repairable.
           | Framework has a great opportunity to take in disillusioned
           | ThinkPad customers who are only staying with Lenovo because
           | of the TrackPoint.
        
         | krolden wrote:
         | Why no modular GPU?
        
         | strohwueste wrote:
         | First of all great work! But did you also consider the step
         | after re-use? What happens to the components and the materials
         | in recycling?
        
           | nrp wrote:
           | We hope and expect that many of the re-use use cases can have
           | longer lifetimes than a laptop normally would (e.g. a pfsense
           | box that happily chugs away in a closet for a decade), but
           | past that point, it enters the same disposition stream that
           | electronics can safely be recycled through by consumers.
           | We're working on making that experience easier by having the
           | QR code on each module point to a page that includes local
           | certified recyclers in the future.
        
             | strohwueste wrote:
             | Ok great that's already way better then most ;) if you're
             | interested in a LCA let me know
        
         | minimilian wrote:
         | When do you expect these computers will become coreboot
         | compatible?
        
         | Sirened wrote:
         | Are there plans to release documentation (not just pinouts but
         | protocol?) for other elements on the board? One of the
         | frustrations with working with ARM SoCs is having peripherals
         | that you just can't talk to because the vendor hasn't released
         | documentation for it.
        
           | nrp wrote:
           | Could you share which peripherals you see a need for
           | additional documentation on? In most cases where a specific
           | IC is controlling a peripheral or interface, we're at the
           | mercy of the IC vendor or relevant standards body (VESA, PCI-
           | SIG, USB-IF) to decide what is public.
        
         | pjerem wrote:
         | wow that is so nice.
         | 
         | Please please please keep the control of your company. The
         | world desperately needs companies like yours.
        
         | TheDudeMan wrote:
         | Are there hardware off switches for any cameras and mics?
        
           | josephcsible wrote:
           | https://frame.work/laptop says "a hardware privacy switch
           | lets you physically cut off power to the image sensor" and
           | "The dual MEMS microphones are connected to a hardware
           | privacy switch". So the laptop definitely has them, but I'm
           | not sure if they're part of the mainboard.
        
           | nrp wrote:
           | Yep, they are actually part of the webcam module:
           | https://frame.work/blog/1080p-webcam
        
         | bobsmooth wrote:
         | Any plans to sell this or other mainboards separately?
        
           | nrp wrote:
           | Yep, the Mainboard is available as of today:
           | https://frame.work/products/mainboard?v=FRANFG000A
        
             | bobsmooth wrote:
             | $400 for a powerful SBC with consumer-level support and
             | drivers is a pretty great price.
        
               | ac29 wrote:
               | Sure but outside a laptop, laptop processors make much
               | less sense. $400 gets you a motherboard and a desktop
               | class processor that is significantly faster.
        
               | yellowapple wrote:
               | That desktop motherboard and CPU likely requires more
               | power, more cooling, and a bigger case.
               | 
               | I can see the "Framework motherboard as SBC" idea catch
               | on for everything from set-top boxes (Steam Machines
               | could make a comeback this way) to a poor man's blade
               | server.
        
               | fomine3 wrote:
               | It's better for SBC. Also laptop iGPU is better than
               | desktop.
        
               | rrss wrote:
               | Being able to just buy something that works when you get
               | it is a big plus IMO.
               | 
               | I've tried a few times in the last year and finding parts
               | (that are actually available) for a sub- $500 small-form-
               | factor system seems to be beyond my capabilities :)
        
               | bubblethink wrote:
               | You need to get on to aliexpress for stuff like that.
               | Plenty of router type boxes in that price range. Even
               | lenovo, Dell, etc. sell some of these labelled as IoT
               | gateways.
        
               | toast0 wrote:
               | Laptop processors make sense when space is at a premium,
               | even if it's not a mobile device. But if space isn't an
               | issue, desktop parts are usually a better choice; you can
               | usually power limit desktop cpus to laptop levels if
               | power usage or heat are a constraint.
        
               | antattack wrote:
               | "the average Core i5-1135G7 in our database is just as
               | fast as the Core i5-10400H, Core i5-8300H, and Ryzen 7
               | 3700U in multi-core benchmarks. The CPU acts even nicer
               | when under single-core load, reaching similar heights as
               | the Ryzen 7 5600X and Core i7-8700K."
               | 
               | https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-
               | Core-i5-1135G7-Processor...
        
             | moondev wrote:
             | Does the mainboard require the keyboard and screen modules
             | to function?
             | 
             | Or could one fully use it "standalone" providing they
             | supply their own usb-c power, memory, storage + external
             | keyboard+monitor?
             | 
             |  _edit_ - looks like it can. the 3d printable case is
             | slick, wish it was sold in the store:
             | https://frame.work/blog/mainboard-availability-and-open-
             | sour...
        
               | nrp wrote:
               | It works fully standalone. Technically the only required
               | items beyond the Mainboard itself are DRAM and a power
               | source (USB-C or a Framework Laptop Battery).
        
               | moondev wrote:
               | This inspired me to start tinkering on my framework
               | laptop. Is there an integrated power switch onboard
               | somewhere? I couldn't find one so I still needed to use
               | the fingerprint reader connected to the input cover.
        
               | nrp wrote:
               | In the top left corner of the Mainboard there is a small
               | button labelled "SW1".
        
               | eurleif wrote:
               | Any word on when the batteries will be available? They've
               | been "coming soon" for a while. I imagine there's a
               | supply chain issue behind that -- not faulting you guys
               | -- but it's kind of painful still not being able to
               | replace the one part of my laptop that's guaranteed to
               | wear out.
        
               | nrp wrote:
               | They are actually physically at our warehouse. The
               | constraint has been the fulfillment logic to ensure they
               | don't ship out from the warehouse by a method that allows
               | air shipment. This is in progress, but in the meantime,
               | we can manually take battery orders (an order containing
               | only a battery) through our support form.
        
               | yellowapple wrote:
               | > The constraint has been the fulfillment logic to ensure
               | they don't ship out from the warehouse by a method that
               | allows air shipment.
               | 
               | Best of luck with that. I know with UPS even the Ground
               | services include the possibility of going via air if the
               | destination is even slightly disconnected from the US
               | mainland (and I distinctly recall having to program
               | ERP/WMS logic for blocking ORM-D shipments entirely to
               | the Catalina Islands' zip code because UPS would accept
               | the ORM-D-marked package, try to load it on a plane for
               | that last hop, and then send us nastygrams about _us_
               | being the ones somehow at fault for it); I don 't think
               | FedEx is any different in that regard.
               | 
               | It's definitely possible to ship batteries via air, but
               | it has to be marked air cargo only and the fees are
               | probably too steep to be worthwhile unless you're
               | shipping a bunch at a time.
        
             | delusional wrote:
             | When you select the different models of mainboard the order
             | of the "Included", "Specs", and "Additional Information"
             | options switch places. Just a minor UI thing.
        
         | wanderingmind wrote:
         | Sorry for the tangent, but any plans to open sales to Australia
         | and New Zealand soon? I personally know a handful of people who
         | will buy this and the laptop if given a chance.
        
           | nirui wrote:
           | Not really a Mainboard related question..... But I also
           | wonder if it is possible for Framework to offer a global
           | shipping option? I would totally handle import tax and
           | customs fees etc myself if such option becomes available.
        
             | oaiey wrote:
             | Any component which has an electricity or wireless "uplink"
             | will require regulatory approval before entering a market.
             | 
             | Just "shipping" is not good enough if you are a hardware
             | producer who cares whether the product can be legally
             | operated in a country.
        
               | nirui wrote:
               | Understood.
               | 
               | However, I think maybe there are ways to achieve delivery
               | even if the manufacturer is not operating in the
               | destination country? Maybe through a third-party partner
               | such as Amazon?
               | 
               | This Chromebook (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YMM4YC1/)
               | for example, ships from the US and can be delivered
               | straight to my hand even Google don't actually operate
               | here.
               | 
               | Currently, if I want to buy the laptop, I have to hire a
               | courier company to proxy the package (from their US
               | warehouse to the destination country), the company will
               | handle import and customs. But given the nature of the
               | business, the package might be damaged or lost, and when
               | it did, I might only get the courier fee refunded.
               | 
               | Amazon on the other hand, almost never fail, and even if
               | they did fail, I can still get all my money back.
               | 
               | I would totally pay a small premium to get my laptop and
               | other hardware safely delivered. So... I hope Framework
               | consider this.
        
               | loginatnine wrote:
               | They gave a IMO good overview of the difficulties of
               | selling to a new country in a previous post :
               | 
               | > With our supply improving, you may be wondering when
               | you can order a laptop if you're outside of the US and
               | Canada. We selected and are bringing up our worldwide
               | warehousing and fulfillment partner, which is one very
               | key part of the equation, but it takes quite a lot more
               | than that to enable a complete experience in each
               | country. Picking Germany as one example, we need German
               | language keyboards, a Type F power cable, in-box
               | paperwork and labeling in German, localization for the
               | Framework website, support documentation, and checkout
               | flow, support for local payment methods, calculation of
               | Euro prices and taxes, accounting support for German
               | income, creation of legally sound Terms of Sale, Privacy,
               | and Warranty policies for Germany, CE certifications, a
               | local Authorized Representative to back up the
               | certifications, determination of HS codes and tariffs, an
               | Importer of Record to be able to deliver duty paid,
               | German-language in-time-zone customer support, reverse
               | logistics and RMA support for returns and repairs,
               | region-specific sourcing of off the shelf memory and
               | storage, trial builds of German laptops prior to
               | production, and back-end ERP infrastructure to tie all of
               | this together. That sounds like a lot, but it's actually
               | a drastically simplified summary.
               | 
               | https://frame.work/ca/en/blog/scaling-up-infrastructure
        
               | skissane wrote:
               | > Picking Germany as one example, we need German language
               | keyboards,
               | 
               | Australia and NZ are easier because there is no new
               | language involved (both use English); unlike UK, there
               | isn't even a different keyboard layout, both using the US
               | English layout (but I suppose some people in the UK would
               | be happy to buy it even if it had a US keyboard.) The
               | only physical hardware change required would be a
               | different mains power cord. Some of the other issues
               | (regulatory/tax/currency/customs/etc) would still exist,
               | but cutting the language issue out must simplify things.
        
           | hbbio wrote:
           | When you're ready to expand in APAC, please add Singapore
           | too!
        
             | andreareina wrote:
             | I got mine via vPost, no problems.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | teruakohatu wrote:
           | I am also waiting to get a Framework in NZ. Hopefully they
           | will partner with a local company to provide support. Having
           | a repairable laptop is all very well, but not if we had to
           | wait 6 weeks for the part to arrive.
        
           | girvo wrote:
           | I'm one of them. Such a shame that we can't get them here in
           | Aus. I very nearly ordered it through a re-shipper system. If
           | AusPost still did theirs, I would've!
        
         | codewiz wrote:
         | Any plans to adopt Coreboot or provide documentation and
         | support to developers who want to port Coreboot to your
         | mainboards?
        
           | nrp wrote:
           | We've handed three systems that can boot unsigned bootloaders
           | to folks in the coreboot community. Our plan in the near term
           | is to help them create a shim loader that can be signed to
           | run on any Framework Laptop, which then enables anyone to do
           | further coreboot development.
        
         | gary_0 wrote:
         | > All you need to do is insert memory, plug in a USB-C power
         | adapter, and hit the tiny power button on-board, and you've got
         | a powered-up computer.
         | 
         | That's brilliant. Do you see potential for this becoming
         | popular as a "Raspberry Pi on steroids"? Any future plans to
         | encourage that kind of ecosystem?
        
           | Cthulhu_ wrote:
           | Maybe not so much a raspberry pi as a Mac Mini or other kind
           | of small non-laptop form factor system; I'm sure that,
           | especially with these plans, someone can make a VESA-
           | compatible mount.
        
             | crb wrote:
             | From the blog post accompanying the release: "In addition
             | to 2D drawings of the Mainboard to help you design your
             | projects, we've released two 3D-printable reference
             | designs. One is a minimal VESA-mount holder that lets you
             | attach the Mainboard to a monitor or TV, while the other is
             | a fully featured small form factor desktop case."
        
           | geokon wrote:
           | As far as I can tell, it has no output pins. So it's not
           | comparable to Raspberry Pi (or other ARM SBCs). More akin
           | maybe to an Android TV box? Short of making something through
           | USB - you can't make your own header boards or easily hook up
           | sensors and whatnot
        
             | LeifCarrotson wrote:
             | For something this powerful, you might make it into a
             | while-house automation controller or large CNC machine, and
             | you probably wouldn't want to hook up the IO directly to
             | the main CPU... You'd use Ethernet for distributed IO,
             | maybe I2C for local IO (combined with something like this:
             | https://www.adafruit.com/product/732, which would provide
             | much more powerful, ESD-tolerant, robust, 5V-capable inputs
             | and outputs). A tiny handful of 3V3, low-current IO are not
             | particularly useful for realistic use-cases. Heck, even the
             | Beaglebone, with its 1 GHz Arm A8 and 512 MB RAM has a pair
             | of separate microcontrollers ("PRUs") for real-time IO on
             | the SOC.
             | 
             | I wish there were some higher-speed, lower-level local
             | busses for communication with subprocessors and other IO
             | (SPI, CAN, etc), but Ethernet is fine.
        
               | tmzt wrote:
               | The RP2040 (Raspberry Pi Pico) has a similar feature, two
               | programmable IO cores.
               | 
               | Not for distributed use, but you can interface with USB
               | and still have real-time signal generation.
        
             | nrp wrote:
             | Technically you can use the 50 pin header we have for the
             | input system for GPIO, i2c, and USB. The webcam and display
             | headers also have i2c and USB: https://github.com/Framework
             | Computer/Mainboard/blob/main/Ele...
             | 
             | The GPIO would require EC firmware development, but it is
             | technically possible:
             | https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/EmbeddedController
        
               | geokon wrote:
               | Is this on the ribbon cable? Okay with a breakout board,
               | this would be really interesting and offer something
               | quite unique
               | 
               | It's actually open space right now in the market. It's an
               | annoyance/limitation that the easiest current way to do
               | i2c/gpio/etc hardware-y stuff involves moving to ARM/Rpi.
               | There aren't any real easy solutions for x86 and
               | hobbyists. I had a friend who worked in touchdesigner
               | (which is x64 only) and it was always a bit annoying he
               | couldn't hook say LED strips directly to his laptop and
               | to touchdesigner (so people spend a small fortune on DMX
               | lights). We ended up doing wifi + esps. But that's much
               | more fragile..
               | 
               | Maybe ideally you'd have a header on the side of laptop
               | kinda like the Rpi400?
               | 
               | But even a separate machine/baseboard would still be
               | awesome in the hobby and education sphere
        
               | ezschemi wrote:
               | We recently built a product that utilizes FTDI chips for
               | i2c/gpio/jtag/spi/swd-protocol support. My dev kits and
               | bench setup uses the Adafruit FTDI breakout boards
               | (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2264) to connect to
               | various other circuitry. The driver and even the
               | communication protocols are documented and open source
               | (e.g. OpenOCD implemented their own based on the USB
               | packets). The breakout board doesn't have 40-50 GPIO pins
               | an RPI has, but you can hook multiple of these breakout
               | boards to a computer. I am using 4 breakout boards with
               | one ARM SBC each as targets, with no problems on an Intel
               | NUC. And they are much smaller and easier to get than a
               | RPi.
               | 
               | Besides the FT232H, there are larger FTDI chips with more
               | channels. I am uncertain if one can find USB breakout
               | boards for them, though.
        
               | MegiFlayer wrote:
        
               | MegiFlayer wrote:
        
           | nrp wrote:
           | We certainly hope so. As we look at the ~5 year view of this
           | and have a substantial number of Mainboards in the wild that
           | have been upgraded out of Framework Laptops, we want to do
           | everything we can to foster an ecosystem of methods to re-use
           | them. We actually announced a giveaway of 100 Mainboards to
           | developers as part of the release today to help bootstrap
           | this: https://forms.gle/RegGHe6R4H5cEstH9
        
             | blackkat wrote:
             | Awesome idea! Looking forward to seeing the projects that
             | come out of this giveaway, and I hope my idea gets selected
             | as well :)
        
             | walterbell wrote:
             | Thanks for supporting long-lived hardware. One existing
             | favorite is the classic Lenovo X230/X430 series, which has
             | seen several mods over the years, with a healthy resale
             | market.
             | 
             | Do you plan to offer Pro/Enterprise CPUs (Intel vPro, Ryzen
             | Pro), for h/w security features like memory encryption or
             | Windows secured core / VBS?
             | 
             | For open-source firmware and kernel/hypervisor development,
             | it would be good to have a serial port header.
        
               | nrp wrote:
               | The i7-1185G7 SKU supports vPro:
               | https://frame.work/products/mainboard?v=FRANFG000C
               | 
               | We also have some additional debug support through a
               | header that we've documented here:
               | https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/EmbeddedController
        
           | rozab wrote:
           | People are already using them in place of lattepandas etc for
           | cyberdeck builds.
           | 
           | https://youtu.be/y8jiYl0CzKc
        
         | occamschainsaw wrote:
         | Hi Nirav, This might be a tangent. Do you have any plans for
         | eink display modules for the Framework laptop? I know it's a
         | niche and the eink panels are expensive, but it would be
         | amazing for a portable machine.
        
           | vaylian wrote:
           | I'd also be interested in this. But at the same time, I guess
           | it's more likely that a third party will produce this,
           | because Framework has other priorities.
           | 
           | For those who might wonder why eInk would be cool: Much
           | better reading experience on the screen and insanely long
           | battery life.
        
             | rcoder wrote:
             | I'm a huge eink display fan, to the point of owning
             | multiple tablet-shaped devices with larger EPDs. I agree
             | that the reading experience for effectively static text and
             | b/w images is great, but once you introduce any scrolling
             | or transitions it quickly becomes worse than a standard
             | LCD. UIs really need to be optimized for eink, just like
             | they should be designed differently for smartphones, big
             | desktop displays, and screen readers or other assistive
             | tech.
             | 
             | W.r.t. power: I don't think EPD magically runs on less
             | power _while refreshing_. So again, if you are mostly
             | displaying static text and figures --- like in an ebook
             | reader --- it's great. If you're constantly repainting the
             | UI, less so.
             | 
             | As much as we may like to think programming is all about
             | staring at walls of text in editor buffers we've carefully
             | tuned for readability, IME at least I spend a lot of time
             | switching between an editor, live view of my running app,
             | documentation, log and trace views, etc.
             | 
             | Neither a slow refresh (4-10 fps) with major ghosting or a
             | glacially slow (<1 fps) one that's clean is actually a very
             | good trade off with most modern workflows. Including ones
             | that are nominally about text, like coding.
        
         | belter wrote:
         | Congratulations on the project. Any plans for a 17 Inch screen?
        
         | goodpoint wrote:
         | Are all schematics, BoM, PCBs released with open licenses?
         | 
         | Is anything patented?
         | 
         | Would you welcome other companies making compatible components?
        
           | gary_0 wrote:
           | From the GitHub link:
           | 
           | > licensed under CC BY 4.0
           | 
           | > All of this is a starting point for a broader set of open
           | source Mainboard documentation to enable creation of fully
           | compatible third-party Mainboards in the future.
           | 
           | I don't see any full electronic schematics/BoM in the repo;
           | they don't tell you how to replicate or modify the
           | electronics, just how to fit the form factor.
        
             | snvzz wrote:
             | It'd help to include a copy of the license, rather than a
             | link to some other website.
             | 
             | Legally, it is a bit of an issue as the linked license
             | could technically change.
             | 
             | Technically, it prevents github from recognizing CC-BY-4.0
             | as the repository license.
        
               | nrp wrote:
               | Good catch, we uploaded a LICENSE file.
        
         | juanci_to wrote:
         | Hello! Happy Framework laptop owner here.
         | 
         | Any plan to release an AMD alternative mainboard?
        
           | devmor wrote:
           | Very interested in this too. I would actually replace the
           | Intel mainboard in my framework laptop and then use it for
           | something else.
        
           | kfrzcode wrote:
           | Here's a great discussion in the community forum about AMD
           | alternatives, and why the company, especially at such an
           | early stage, might refrain from discussion, etc. I don't
           | speak for the company, just a fan.
           | 
           | https://community.frame.work/t/amd-cpus-an-open-letter-to-
           | th...
        
           | belter wrote:
           | How is the thermal management? It's a notoriously difficult
           | part of a design. Thinkpads for example tend to excel and
           | Dell tends to fail miserably.
           | 
           | Does it get very hot in your lap for example?
        
             | juanci_to wrote:
             | According to the thermometer right now: 50degC
             | 
             | Sometimes it reaches 75%
             | 
             | It's not hot by computer standards per se, but since it's
             | built out of aluminum, there are moments when you wouldn't
             | want to have it on your lap because it would be somewhat
             | painful. Specially with some heavy compilation going on
        
         | rvanlaar wrote:
         | The link https://frame.work/marketplace/mainboards seems
         | broken. It redirects me to https://frame.work/nl/en
        
           | AggroVanGogh wrote:
           | Same here when accessing from the UK - marketplace links just
           | redirect back to the main laptop purchasing page.
        
         | heavyset_go wrote:
         | I like the idea of x86 SBCs because of ARM SBC issues with the
         | lack of SBSA, while x86 computers ship with ACPI support.
         | 
         | Now when are the AMD mainboards coming? ;)
        
           | ncmncm wrote:
           | Yes, I am waiting for the AMD version, as well. No doubt a
           | lot of us are.
           | 
           | Gotta say I was disappointed when the first ones out were
           | Intel.
        
             | heavyset_go wrote:
             | So was I, as I was in the market for a new computer when
             | they came out. Hopefully they'll jump on Zen 4 when it
             | comes out.
        
             | VTimofeenko wrote:
             | I'm in the same boat. When AMD mainboard will be out, I am
             | planning to stuff the Intel one into a Fractal case and
             | just have another server for the home server zoo.
        
         | gtvwill wrote:
         | Just want to chime in with some appreciation. Phenomenal work
         | your doing for tech with ethics.
        
         | antattack wrote:
         | Will BIOS support PCIe network card (with PCIe extender)
         | connected to PCIe port? How many lines is it?
        
           | moondev wrote:
           | It's a laptop mainboard, there is no PCIe slot. Or do you
           | mean nvme -> PCIe adaptor?
           | 
           | Another option is to put the nic inside a tb3 pcie enclosure
           | and connect that. There are 4 thunderbolt ports.
        
             | antattack wrote:
             | From what I could find tb3 to PCIe is very expensive. NVME
             | is basically a protocol on top of PCIe with m.2 connector.
             | 
             | Here's an example of m.2 to PCIe x4 adapter:
             | https://www.delock.com/produkt/64131/merkmale.html
             | 
             | If adapter is possible we could use 4 port gig adapter for
             | a nice pfsense/opnsense router or a VM server.
        
               | moondev wrote:
               | Understood, I actually have a m.2 to PCIe adaptor on hand
               | now that I use with success with my honeycomb lx2. I'll
               | test a nic for you with the framework m.2 port.
        
         | cbsks wrote:
         | Are schematics available?
         | 
         | Also, thank you very much. I love my Framework laptop!
        
         | zucker42 wrote:
         | Are you limited in how much documentation you can release
         | because of contracts or legal reasons? For example, if
         | Framework or another company wanted to build a fully open
         | source mainboard for an Intel or AMD processor would that be
         | possible?
        
         | pvsukale3 wrote:
         | 2 questions:
         | 
         | 1) When are you planning to launch in India?
         | 
         | 2) Have you thought about launching your own Linux distro
         | optimized for Framework? You could upgrade Linux desktop
         | experience. That would be awesome.
        
           | mpartel wrote:
           | System76 has done good work on Linux support for (seemingly)
           | similar hardware: https://tech-
           | docs.system76.com/models/lemp10/README.html - some of that
           | might be reusable.
        
           | xtat wrote:
           | pls no custom distro - i dont want something that breaks in
           | specific ways
        
           | ibz wrote:
           | +1 for own Linux distro.
           | 
           | Apple always had the advantage of controlling both the
           | hardware and the software.
           | 
           | Also, in the Linux space, I had amazing experience with
           | Raspberry Pi OS. Not only that it works well out of the box,
           | but being the OS most people use on that specific hardware
           | makes searching for answers to any issues much easier.
           | 
           | Ideally though it would be as close as possible to an
           | existing distro and only include patches needed for good
           | Framework support.
        
             | amelius wrote:
             | > +1 for own Linux distro.
             | 
             | It's a bad idea to force users to use one distro. There are
             | many users who run NixOS, and others prefer Ubuntu, or even
             | Gentoo.
             | 
             | > Apple always had the advantage of controlling both the
             | hardware and the software.
             | 
             | Controlling my own hardware is exactly what I look for when
             | buying a laptop.
        
             | samhw wrote:
             | > Apple always had the advantage of controlling both the
             | hardware and the software.
             | 
             | And this is exactly why anyone who likes that approach can
             | & will buy an Apple laptop. Framework is clearly going for
             | the opposite of that market. Instead of being a
             | (necessarily) worse clone of Apple, I think it makes sense
             | for them to cater to the market they are clearly aimed at,
             | which is _not_ people who are happy with a walled-garden
             | system.
        
               | ibz wrote:
               | How is having the option, besides Windows, to order the
               | laptop preinstalled with a default, well tuned and well
               | supported Linux distro a "walled garden"? Also, most
               | patches in this distro would presumably end up merged
               | upstream anyway.
        
               | samhw wrote:
               | I was referring to the prospect of their spending time
               | working on their own distro, at the expense (considering
               | the finitude of human lifespans etc) of supporting
               | others. As with so many arguments, your point makes total
               | sense until you consider that human effort is a finite
               | resource.
        
             | pvsukale3 wrote:
             | Yes, that could be easier to rather develop it from
             | scratch.
        
           | emptysongglass wrote:
           | There are already far too many distros (and DEs) out there.
           | Working with the commons would be a far better approach.
           | 
           | Once you start getting into specific hardware optimizations
           | you are basically throwing up your hands on the interoperable
           | approach that is a strength of Linux. There is no reason why
           | those changes can't be upstreamed.
        
           | icy wrote:
           | +1 for India. I'd really like to get one.
        
           | Iolaum wrote:
           | Please don't ask for their own Linux distro. Upstreamimg
           | their hardware drivers is enough. Their resources are better
           | spent innovating at the hardware level. And upstream support
           | for frame.work hardware means frame.work users can take
           | advantage of all the innovation happening in the linux
           | ecosystem because all distros would run on it.
        
             | pjerem wrote:
             | Yes, I can see some partnership with an existing distro
             | (something like << merge our drivers asap and you get
             | preinstalled >>) but IMO, the company behind Framework
             | should focus on its strengths on the hardware design. I
             | think they are on a hard market and it would make me sad to
             | throw money into making another distribution.
             | 
             | Furthermore, I think that, atm, their target market may be
             | 95% of power users who will flash a usb stick with their
             | favorite OS even before receiving the computer.
        
               | Iolaum wrote:
               | I think that have a working/unofficial? relationship with
               | some people from Fedora. I remember announcements some
               | time ago that everything is working with it. Also given
               | Fedora's upstream first approach that was a very good
               | choice of them.
        
         | a-dub wrote:
         | any chance there might be a thinkpad x/t series style case made
         | for these?
         | 
         | knocking off the mac is kinda cute, but mac laptop ergonomics
         | and durability are terrible.
        
         | user_7832 wrote:
         | Will there be information on important parameters of the main
         | board/PCB? I'm not exactly talking about physical dimensions or
         | enclosure design itself - but as a mechanical engineer I have
         | no idea what sort of safe flexural tolerance a PCB might have,
         | or if there's some available data on shock and drop tolerances
         | of the board.
         | 
         | Also a quick qn 2 - any plans for a "smaller" board (maybe
         | v2/later)? The current size is fine for a laptop but not ideal
         | if someone is looking for building a tablet/small cyberdeck
         | style device.
        
           | nrp wrote:
           | Great question on the additional parameters. I'll take that
           | back to our mechanical engineering team.
        
             | user_7832 wrote:
             | Thanks!
        
             | sampleAccount1 wrote:
        
         | contingencies wrote:
         | Many of us prefer larger laptops and find 13.5" too small for
         | regular use. If a larger body were developed there would
         | presumably be space for additional battery in addition to a
         | larger keyboard and screen, maybe even more ports or extra
         | devices[0]. Alternatively the system could be used as a screen-
         | tablet with a wireless keyboard. Were either of these form
         | factor changes considered as a potential design path during
         | development? Do you have any plans to provide these as options
         | in future? Presumably other than sourcing the panel, larger
         | inbuilt keyboard and machining alternate cases neither option
         | would be substantially difficult.
         | 
         | [0] Expansion card program at
         | https://community.frame.work/c/developer-program/expansion-c...
         | shows ethernet, cellular, wireless charging.
        
           | andreareina wrote:
           | More ports would require another mainboard sku. But yeah I'd
           | love a 15+ inch with 6 ports and more battery.
        
             | contingencies wrote:
             | Why? The ports don't need to be independent host-side
             | channels. Worst case the addition of one extra embedded
             | USB-C hub should allow almost any number of ports and
             | devices to be added.
        
           | ncmncm wrote:
           | Agreed, I also am not interested in anything not at least
           | close to 16 inches.
        
             | ncmncm wrote:
             | ("That's what she said"?)
        
       | Kab1r wrote:
       | Is there any way to get two 10gbe Intel nics on one of these?
        
         | bb88 wrote:
         | I never understood why someone just didn't build a Ethernet
         | over TB-4 switch with USB-C cables instead of RJ45/SFP+ ports.
         | Yes you'd be limited to 1 to 2 meters of cable length, but you
         | could still add a proper ethernet port as a backhaul.
         | 
         | Yes it might not be as fast, but in the end, all SATA, TB4, and
         | ethernet does is push bits over a wire.
        
         | disqard wrote:
         | You could use "USB-C to Ethernet" converter(s).
        
         | wmf wrote:
         | Via Thunderbolt probably.
        
       | Dave3of5 wrote:
       | I welcome the approach here it's much better.
       | 
       | I think the company has some way to go yet in terms of maturing
       | overall as a laptop manufacturer. You can see a few of the
       | problems on here e.g. invoices, old cpu ...etc. To me though the
       | biggest problem is that there laptop isn't really bringing any
       | feature that's new to the table.
       | 
       | The repair-ability is awesome don't get me wrong but getting a
       | laptop repaired isn't something new it's just they've made that
       | part easier.
       | 
       | Example here is the new M1 macbooks have insane battery life,
       | excellent touchpad / gesture support, insanely thin. Asus Rog
       | make crazy fast gaming laptops with almost desktop like
       | performance and still in a reasonable looking form factor. Dell
       | make really cheap (and shit) laptops with amazing availability.
       | System76 make linux based laptops.
       | 
       | I could go on but I think if they want to survive as a company
       | they need something more than "it's easy to repair".
        
       | stonefall wrote:
       | Are these going to start shipping to Australia within the next
       | 2~3 months?
        
       | slaw wrote:
       | 16 inch, 500 nits matte screen, better CPU and Linux as first
       | class citizen.
        
         | IE6 wrote:
         | I agree and also 17 inch :)
        
       | pcdoodle wrote:
       | This is so cool!
        
       | varispeed wrote:
       | It's really sad that we got so low that something so trivial gets
       | to the front page. Where are schematics, board layouts, BOM? I am
       | not even mentioning "Theory of operation" sections and
       | "Calibration" which was quite common decades ago.
        
         | IE6 wrote:
         | perfection is the enemy of progress or something
        
         | martyvis wrote:
         | Why is it trivial? Did you follow the link from GitHub to the
         | main https//frame.work website? There are close to zero other
         | offerings of a modular mobile computing platform that function
         | as a laptop and single board computer.
        
           | userbinator wrote:
           | It's trivial in terms of how much documentation there is.
           | Pinouts and dimensions are basically a given in any mobo
           | manual. From that perspective they are just on par with the
           | other SBCs out there. Here's a random example to compare
           | to...
           | 
           | http://advdownload.advantech.com/productfile/Downloadfile4/1.
           | ..
           | 
           | The comment may also be referencing the original IBM PC
           | manuals, up until the AT, which contained far more
           | information, including schematics and even BIOS source code
           | listings.
        
         | ZekeSulastin wrote:
         | > Where are schematics, board layouts, BOM?
         | 
         | Open your own repair shop and you can get all the schematics
         | you want![1] If you're not a repair shop, enjoy your FRU
         | replacement?
         | 
         | [1]https://frame.work/blog/preparing-to-ship-and-respecting-
         | you...
        
       | yellowapple wrote:
       | As if I didn't have enough reason to be happy about my decision
       | to buy a Framework, here they are, giving me yet another reason -
       | and possibly even a reason to buy a spare mainboard for a tiny
       | desktop.
        
       | asdfghjkl12 wrote:
        
         | exikyut wrote:
         | * _Flyswat_ *
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | lowbloodsugar wrote:
       | Oh. Intel, huh?
        
       | byefruit wrote:
       | My current laptop needs to be replaced really soon, I'm hoping
       | Framework will announce either a recent AMD Ryzen or Intel's
       | Alder Lake. The difference between the 11th and 12th gen Intel is
       | big enough I don't want to spend the next three years regretting
       | it.
       | 
       | Unfortunately Lenovo or Dell might get my budget if it looks like
       | that's not going to happen for a while. This laptop has had a few
       | too many drops off of my bike (which is why repairability would
       | be great!).
        
         | elromulous wrote:
         | This. I'm in the same boat. No way am I buying an 11th gen when
         | 12th gen is out. Upgradability shmupgradability if I need to
         | upgrade 6 months or so after purchase.
        
         | noveltyaccount wrote:
         | Or for that matter, high end ARM chips :)
        
           | geoffeg wrote:
           | Is there any manufacturer with plans to come out with an
           | Apple Silicon-level ARM chip (in terms of performance and
           | efficiency)? Ever since the first benchmarks for the M1 chips
           | started appearing I've been kinda dreaming of a Raspberry-Pi
           | style system with a high performance ARM chip.
        
             | ac29 wrote:
             | Qualcomm, maybe. They aquired Nuvia (many ex-Apple people),
             | who was designing such a processor.
        
             | wmf wrote:
             | Nvidia Orin, but they're charging a fortune for it.
        
               | glowingly wrote:
               | I'd want better mainline support for it. Either full
               | mainline kernel support or something akin to it from
               | Nvidia. My Jetsons were stuck on Ubuntu 18.04 since early
               | 2020, with the old 4.19 kernel. They only recently beta'd
               | a 20.04-based build with Kernel 5.10. Full release is
               | 2022Q4. Somewhat like their "18.04" upgrade - very, very
               | late. Sure, I could backport, try to upgrade on my own,
               | etc. Some people have done so. Results were varied.
               | 
               | IMO, Nvidia is comparing themselves to embedded vendors.
               | For general compute, I'd like vendors to keep up with the
               | Fedoras, sids, and Tumbleweeds of the world, at the very
               | least. Not asking for _arch, btw_ :)
               | 
               | Hopefully Nvidia's server ambitions with Grace will see
               | them take on general compute.
        
             | mappu wrote:
             | For ARM64 performance, if you don't mind a desktop instead,
             | there's https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px
             | =ADLINK-A... with a 32-core Altra A1 in it including RAM
             | for 4000 USD. It is very reasonable when compared to a
             | Threadripper.
             | 
             | In terms of power efficiency you'll need to wait until
             | Apple stops monopolizing TSMC's N5 node.
             | 
             | Apple almost singlehandedly invented the ARM64 ISA, and
             | bankrolled the leading-edge TSMC process, so it's probably
             | okay for them to have the best SoC for a while as long as
             | others have a fair chance of catching up soon.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | stormbrew wrote:
           | for now I'd settle for -- and am really hoping for -- a CM4
           | carrier board. Obviously it wouldn't be able to do full tb4
           | through the usb ports like the x86 board but I'm ok with
           | that.
           | 
           | Something higher end would be fantastic too, but this feels
           | like a walk before we get to run kind of situation.
        
         | bodge5000 wrote:
         | Out of interest, do you use your laptop as your primary
         | personal computer, or do you just have a laptop on you for
         | portability?
        
         | pizza234 wrote:
         | > The difference between the 11th and 12th gen Intel is big
         | enough I don't want to spend the next three years regretting
         | it.
         | 
         | With the Framework though, the CPU (motherboard) is intended to
         | be replaceable. There will likely be (assuming there isn't one
         | already) a secondary market of individual parts.
        
           | babypuncher wrote:
           | When I buy a laptop with an upgrade path in mind, the hope is
           | that I will do so in 2-3 years, not next week. Otherwise I am
           | just spending a bunch of money on hardware that I will not
           | actually use for very long.
           | 
           | Alder Lake and Zen 3 have been out for a while now, so I do
           | not think it is unreasonable to expect a brand new laptop to
           | ship with either of them.
        
             | ouEight12 wrote:
             | > I do not think it is unreasonable to expect a brand new
             | laptop to ship with either of them.
             | 
             | For a Dell, HP, or other multinational conglomerate who
             | gets new chipsets in advance from Intel and always has a
             | dozen or more models on the never ending merry-go-round of
             | 'hype the new, dump last seasons at Costco on the people
             | who don't know any better', no, it's not unreasonable.
             | 
             | For a small batch manufacturer who's been shipping laptops
             | less then a year and is still effectively on their first
             | model release? All in the middle of a pandemic induced
             | supply chain fiasco?
             | 
             | It kind of is.
        
               | babypuncher wrote:
               | Maybe for Alder Lake, but Zen 3 has been around for an
               | eternity, and is already on the cusp of being succeeded
               | by Zen 4. Zen 3 is also _so much better_ than 11th gen
               | Intel that I struggle to understand why any manufacturer
               | would have chosen Intel for their new flagship laptop in
               | 2021.
        
               | csdreamer7 wrote:
               | > Maybe for Alder Lake, but Zen 3 has been around for an
               | eternity
               | 
               | 5000 series Zen 3 has on desktop. Zen 3 based 6000 series
               | laptops with RDNA2 graphics are still newish and a little
               | difficult to get. Even from tier-1 brands.
               | 
               | AMD was also a little late to getting Linux support into
               | these computers. 5.17 (released a few weeks ago and is
               | what Fedora 36 will release with) just got support into
               | the Ethernet driver.
               | 
               | https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux
               | -5....
               | 
               | Mobile Alder Lake just launched (in Feb?). Don't confuse
               | the desktop with the mobile variants-especially when you
               | are considering driver support.
        
               | yata69420 wrote:
               | This is spot on. If Framework offered Zen 3 and 120hz+
               | display, I would absolutely buy one immediately.
        
               | Sebb767 wrote:
               | On any thread on framework, comments in the form of "I'd
               | buy one right now if it had X" are probably the most
               | common, for quite a few X ;-)
               | 
               | That being said, I'm also waiting for an AMD CPU. Given
               | that it is the most requested feature, though, I assume
               | they'll be there in the next iteration.
        
           | wmf wrote:
           | Buying an obsolete laptop now and upgrading it in a few
           | months is not a good use of money though.
        
             | delusional wrote:
             | It's also not a good use of the earths resources, which i
             | think is part of the ethos of framework.
        
               | dymk wrote:
               | Electronic components are some of the most profitable
               | materials to recycle.
               | 
               | The whole "it's more green" thing is marketing fluff.
        
               | bogwog wrote:
               | Reduce > Reuse > Recycle
               | 
               | Recycling is the worst of the three by far.
        
               | willismichael wrote:
               | Well, the framework hardware is much more likely to be
               | used by somebody who can buy it secondhand, unlike a lot
               | of laptops that are intentionally designed to be a pain
               | to reuse/repair.
        
         | idealmedtech wrote:
         | Lenovo P series has great repairability! Will definitely be
         | getting a framework next, though.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | thomasfl wrote:
       | That's how you do it!
        
       | thelazydogsback wrote:
       | Great stuff! Can't wait for an old-man version that's 15.6", 16"
       | or 17" :)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | RF_Savage wrote:
       | Nice to see the mechanical designs getting published.
       | 
       | Has anyone yet designed an adapter board for fitting rpi compute
       | module 4 in the case?
        
       | Synersoft wrote:
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2022-04-20 23:02 UTC)