[HN Gopher] FrameBook
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FrameBook
Author : todsacerdoti
Score : 324 points
Date : 2026-03-08 15:21 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (fb.edoo.gg)
(TXT) w3m dump (fb.edoo.gg)
| tosh wrote:
| I remember these Macbooks did tend to break apart at the corners
| of the palmrests.
|
| But I like the idea of re-visiting Macbook plastic chassis w/ new
| inside.
|
| I would love to know what the weight is in the end.
|
| Can the old Macbook chassis lead to a lighter weight computer
| than the current 1.23kg Macbook neo and Macbook air?
| linguae wrote:
| That's what happened to my 2006 Core Duo MacBook after about
| three or four years of use. It was an excellent laptop that was
| quite user-serviceable (I upgraded the RAM and hard drive), but
| I did have problems with the palmrests, and the Ethernet port
| stopped working after four years.
|
| It was my first Apple laptop and I have fond memories of using
| it during my college years.
| mikepurvis wrote:
| I had one of those machines in university too and had the
| same stained/cracked palmrests. That said, I also paid for
| extended AppleCare and had the whole top case swapped for
| free multiple times throughout the three years that the
| coverage lasted.
| retired wrote:
| When I was a broke student I would buy MacBooks with broken
| palm rests for a discounted price, drop them off at Apple
| for a free repair (under extended warranty) and flip them
| for a profit. Three hours of my time turned into EUR100
| profit. Minimum wage was EUR6/hour back then.
|
| Did the same years later buying up first gen iPod Nano and
| trading them in for sixth gen because of the battery
| recall.
| masklinn wrote:
| > I remember these Macbooks did tend to break apart at the
| corners of the palmrests.
|
| Not the corners for me, but the "feet" of the topcase digging
| into the palmrest, which would splinter the plastic, then you'd
| have holes in the case _and_ jagged plastic splinters digging
| into your wrist as you typed, not enjoyable.
|
| This: https://ismh.s3.amazonaws.com/2014-02-24-macbook-
| topcase.jpg is exactly what mine had, on both sides.
|
| Shame because it was the last macbook that was really easy to
| upgrade: the battery was removable (with a simple lock), and
| behind it were the RAM and 2.5" drive slots.
|
| The next generation was not that hard but you had to unscrew
| the entire bottom shell, and the battery was glued.
| retired wrote:
| Unscrewing the bottom on the generations after this gave you
| access to nearly everything. Which was vastly superior for
| most repairs. Getting to the logic board or AirPort card on
| the polycarbonate MacBook took significantly longer. For the
| Bluetooth motherboard you had to remove the display cable,
| optical drive and HDD.
| funkychicken wrote:
| The plastic by the trackpad would turn pink as well from my
| sweaty hands. Good times.
| retired wrote:
| From all those long sessions playing Call of Duty and Quake
| 4!
| seized wrote:
| An ebook reader from Framework would be awesome....
| hedora wrote:
| This is probably close enough:
|
| https://pine64.org/devices/pinenote/
| vrganj wrote:
| 610 Euros seems quite steep for an eReader.
| OJFord wrote:
| Boox Note Air 5C is EUR530, Kindle Scribe also in the
| region. Pine does tend to have a bit of a premium spec for
| spec, presumably largely from (lack of) scale.
| zikduruqe wrote:
| Or a printer...
|
| Or a phone ...
|
| Or a router ...
| haunter wrote:
| No one will make a printer because the margins are so low.
| They are like the FMCG [0] of the tech world
|
| 0, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast-moving_consumer_goods
| okkdev wrote:
| Phone is thankfully covered by Fairphone.
| zeagle wrote:
| I would imagine battery life would be poor vs an eReader. In
| case you seek the same: I used a boox onyx (12"?) and OK
| overall. Issues IMO were the display is very fragile & did it
| in in the end despite a case and pocket in the bag, color was a
| bit of gimmick, most importantly the resolution was not good
| enough read journals/PDFs/stuff like the guardian weekly via
| libby crisply without zooming in... but the rest was decent. I
| switched to a kindle scribe I got for 1/3 the price after but
| it can't read the guardian or anything like that unfortunately
| like an android tablet. So just a bulky eReader with meeting
| notes there. If it even just showed my daily calendar I'd be
| happy.
| serf wrote:
| very cool project. id like to do something similar with my
| favorite thinkpad models.
|
| that said, practice soldering, the insulation on those wires[0]
| and the sheer distance that they wicked solder upwards makes me
| really wonder how much heat got dumped into those tiny pads!
|
| [0]: https://fb.edoo.gg/assets/images/image06.jpg?v=86ae0ddf
| scsh wrote:
| Agreed, this got me thinking maybe I should try something
| similar with my own old macbook pro. They did mention that this
| was the first time they had soldered anything, so it's great
| that they went for it and it worked! So now it's just a matter
| of improving technique.
|
| Long term, that may need to be redone. Really want less exposed
| wire in the final product, tin the tips of the wire first so
| they don't suck up the solder and trim to the appropriate
| length(only a bit bigger than the size of the pads at most).
| This is a good example on tinning:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRPF4wpXX9Q And if you need to
| expose a lot of wire then just use some heatshrink so it's not
| exposed once you're done.
|
| In a perfect world, you'd want to remove all the existing
| solder and then re-solder everything. But de-soldering can be
| its own skill and isn't always strictly necessary. Just
| something more to work toward.
| dlcarrier wrote:
| Wow, 64 GB of RAM.
|
| I'm really tempted to build a modern computer into an HP Jornada
| case. I really miss that form factor. It's pocketable yet has a
| usable keyboard.
| varispeed wrote:
| Is it easy these days to get a mortgage for 64 GB of RAM?
| LoganDark wrote:
| That's called Affirm
| notpushkin wrote:
| Negative.
| retired wrote:
| Just buy it on credit and then delete the app.
| Chris2048 wrote:
| You mean one of the wider ones? Look a little like cyberdecks.
| sspiff wrote:
| I used to run Linux (JLime Linux) and NetBSD on those. I did
| prefer the bigger NEC MobilePro competitors though, but I spent
| so much time on those Jornadas in college.
| znpy wrote:
| At some point some kristoff guy was developing some flashrom
| boards so that jlime linux on the hp jornada could have
| actual suspend to ram.
|
| On one hand, it would've been cool.
|
| On the other hand, at the time netbooks were becoming common
| and were essentially taking the spot of those kind of devices
| (jornada 728 etc).
| xattt wrote:
| I can only imagine a giant using the domestically-produced
| hardware of Lilliput.
| sourcecodeplz wrote:
| So it's a Hackintosh?
| dmoy wrote:
| Idk what the word for it is
|
| Hackintosh typically refers to running not-MacOS on apple
| hardware? Imo this project of removing almost all of the inner
| guts and using effectively a Frankenstein'd collection of
| things to reconstitute it into laptop needs a different word.
|
| If it were me I would choose
|
| Franekntosh
| delecti wrote:
| No, Hackintosh specifically refers to running MacOS on non-
| Apple hardware.
|
| I don't think there's a word for running other OSs on Apple
| hardware, because it's officially supported.
| Kwantuum wrote:
| Hackintosh refers to doing things the other way around: running
| MacOS on non-apple hardware. So no, this is not a hackintosh.
| hamdingers wrote:
| Looks like Windows with a very MacOS-esque theme rather than a
| proper hackintosh, the screenshot says Windows 11 IoT
| Enterprise.
| larodi wrote:
| Indeed, is not a Mac, I really expected some old MACOS
| luyu_wu wrote:
| For people curious, it looks like it is MyDockFinder.
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/1787090/MyDockFinder/
|
| I previously had a pretty good experience with it before
| moving to Linux.
| Footprint0521 wrote:
| Scrolled down just to find this comment
|
| I was initially so happy to see a Linux build that looked
| so much like macOS, but then saw windows 11 pro on the
| about, and died inside..
|
| I guess that's why it has 64 gb of ram, so that there's 10
| left for applications after windows is done lol
| znpy wrote:
| In a way, it's the exact opposite
| asimovDev wrote:
| I'd love the same thing but with the titanium powerbooks /
| intels. What a beautiful design it was.
| s0rce wrote:
| I liked my old magnesium Thinkpad T41p but it was a different
| aesthetic.
| shen wrote:
| I wish the same could be done with the 11 inch MacBook airs,
| still my favorite laptop I've owned.
| jebarker wrote:
| I still rock one of these running Linux and it's plenty capable
| for my hobby workloads. Just had to replace the inflating
| battery!
| jama211 wrote:
| Very cool!
| m3rcury wrote:
| theseus's macbook, love it!
| zeagle wrote:
| This is pretty impressive! I'm always impressed with what one can
| 3D print to fit commercial products into a previous case!
| Modifying to fit the larger webcam module, battery in that way
| was neat too. Does the display connect via framework's cable
| without modification? I have an old motherboard running headless
| I was thinking of resurrecting but if I need to hook up a USC-C
| display.
| metabagel wrote:
| They never actually say what the project is, LOL. I figured out
| that it's to put the guts of a framework laptop into an old
| MacBook case.
| adammarples wrote:
| Well done for figuring it out
| myself248 wrote:
| This is brilliant! The techniques remind me of a lot of my
| Toughbook modding, back in the day, which I did not document
| nearly enough.
|
| I still have the shell of a CF-17 that's just begging for new
| guts... but I'd have to aim for something quite a bit lower-power
| as it's a sealed chassis with no provision for air cooling.
| Perhaps a CM4-based build...
|
| Aaah! Why must other people be so productive! It gives me too
| many projects!
| olelele wrote:
| I had a black and white MacBook that was a Frankensteins Monster
| made out of at least 3 of these. It was around 2011-12 and I
| couldn't afford anything else. I think I still remember how to
| disassemble them by heart... <3
| eikenberry wrote:
| I want a laptop form factor that is basically a briefcase with
| the display, computer and battery with space for a keyboard and
| mouse of some kind. I basically hate laptop keyboards/trackpads
| but want a portable computer. Plan on building my own at some
| point using frame.work components as the base but I haven't
| started on it yet. One day.
| _diyar wrote:
| could this not be solved by just getting a laptop and also
| carrying external kb and mouse?
| eikenberry wrote:
| I'd like it in a setup that makes usable as a portable
| without a lot of setup. IMO it is feasibly to disable the
| keyboard/trackpad and just put my keyboard on top but it
| isn't ideal.
| amelius wrote:
| I want something like the huawei matebook fold but with a stand
| to raise the screen to an ergonomic height.
| behnamoh wrote:
| Ugh, those bezels are so 2000. Maybe a good laptop if you don't
| wanna look at it all the time (e.g., as a home server).
| Lerc wrote:
| I have an old aluminium 17" MacBook. It got retired fairly early
| because it suffered from a design flaw but was outside the free
| replacement window.
|
| Its screen is nice, and there looks to be plenty of room inside.
| I have been keeping an eye on options for putting something else
| inside. Its mostly the power delivery for the display that I
| think is beyond my skill that's holding me back.
| cosmic_cheese wrote:
| You may be interested in this Framework build that converted a
| 17" MBP.
|
| https://community.frame.work/t/i-converted-a-macbook-into-a-...
| scumblr wrote:
| Melted GPU? I'm still sore about that one.
| vasac wrote:
| The worst part is that the discrete GPU was used to drive
| external displays, so now I'm stuck with a 17" integrated
| display, which is large for a laptop but still small for a
| computer that I'll never again lug with me (it's heavy by
| today's standards).
| Lerc wrote:
| Mine is a random reset when GPU kicks in, Apparently it's a
| single tiny component that needs to be changed, but to get to
| it requires almost complete disassembly. The cost of having
| it done professionally probably more than it's worth. Chance
| of breaking it by doing it myself too high.
|
| But now I'm just thinking of it as a solid box with nice
| screen and keyboard attached.
| mikae1 wrote:
| The palm rest plastic and screen frame cracked on almost all of
| these. Not a model I romanticize.
|
| https://www.cultofmac.com/how-to/exchange-your-cracked-macbo...
| twodave wrote:
| The mid-2000s Yahoo chat writing style is too grating for me in
| this article.
| roughly wrote:
| Can I just say again that I absolutely love what Framework's
| built/enabled? Between projects like this and things like the
| RISC dev board, they've immediately become the hacker supplier of
| choice. When they first debuted, I was skeptical they'd survive,
| but they've really shown you can build a successful company for a
| niche audience, and they've had a huge impact for the maker
| community.
| wolvoleo wrote:
| Now you should go and reinforce the two lines on top of the
| screen, make them wider. Or replace them with something softer.
| Otherwise they will crush your topcase to a pulp. Like they did
| on every genuine macbook out there for many years because Apple
| never bothered to fix it.
|
| Personally I thought the later plastic macbook with the rounded
| edges was a much nicer design. Or the earliest white iBooks,
| which had a transparent case with white paint inside so they had
| this really cool glow. Unfortunately that caused shadows on the
| tiniest scratch which acted like a magnifying glass, so you
| really had to keep it pristine. But in those days a macbook was
| super expensive so I always kept mine in sleeves.
|
| By the way I love what you've done with the EL film powering the
| back apple light. That looks amazing. It should always have been
| implemented like this, so you can drive it separately.
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