I checked the keyboard debouncing logic [0] and it was fine. Some keyboards from other manufacturers, notably Lenovo Thinkpads, have absurd debouncing algorithms that scramble keys or add delays, so it's good to see Framework has a correct solution.<p>[0]: <a href="https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/EmbeddedController/blob/6e38e82b9553240820c241c80a7d94fdc3ae5914/common/keyboard_scan.c#L510" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/EmbeddedController/blob...</a>
I've been so happy to see what Framework has been doing lately, and really want to support them, but I already have a desktop as my primary computer and two Thinkpads that are already set up nicely, but that I rarely use. I moved from 15" laptops to 14" when Lenovo added the numpad on the larger variant, and 14" is about as small as I want to go.<p>I kind of want to buy a framework though, just to support them? But I have no use for another laptop, let alone a small 12" one! Should I get one anyway because, what the hell, why not? Should I wait and then jump on one if/when they release a larger model?<p>Anybody else have similar feelings?<p>Edit to add:<p>I also have one of the last Thinkpad models that support S3 sleep (T480 -- within a model or two, I think?), which is currently super critical for Linux... I need to be able to close the lid and come back after a week.<p>It's easy to blame the manufacturers for this, but the consistent answer seems to be "Intel's Tiger Lake <i>platform</i> does not support S3 sleep," and all of the system builders base their work on what Intel's reference platform does. So short of going to extreme effort to hack it together themselves (something that is likely not their specialty), reasonable sleep behavior is not going to be an option unless Intel brings S3 back, or does work to improve the S0ix states.<p>I absolutely do not want to support the no-more-S3 clusterfuck right now.
I've been running NixOS on my Framework for the last few months, and I've been really happy with it. I initially got it so I'd have viable hardware to do osdev on, so learning that they are going to open-source its firmware makes me even more happy.
Note to the website developers: currency != language. I'm an American in Germany. My handle of the language isn't (yet) great, thus I still work with English primarily. However, I pay in EUR exclusively.<p>Just the same (not that it appears to be a problem with Framework, though it's easy to make the same mistake), country != language.
Excellent news, can't wait to play with the new firmware. I will echo the Fedora 35 recommendation from the article. Ran a liveusb of it for a week or so on this laptop and it was buttery smooth. All components that in the past I had mixed experiences with (wayland, pipewire) just work.
Does the Framework support coreboot? IIRC it does not, and I was sort of surprised to not see that in this announcement.<p>Their github also doesn't have any mention of coreboot: <a href="https://github.com/FrameworkComputer" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/FrameworkComputer</a><p>And it isn't here either:
<a href="https://doc.coreboot.org/mainboard/index.html" rel="nofollow">https://doc.coreboot.org/mainboard/index.html</a>
Things I'm hoping to see in time for a Framework machine to become my next laptop:<p>- AMD processor options<p>- Keyboards with a trackpoint - decades of ThinkPaddery have conditioned me; I regularly use a Dell touchpad-equipped laptop & contemporary Mac laptop and still pine for a trackpoint. Very personal preference, I know, but hopefully the Framework Marketplace comes to provide this.<p>- Proper 14" HiDPI screen<p>- Long battery life under Linux<p>I'm impressed with what they've been able to do and really hope they become sustainably successful!
Really hoping for the laptop's next iteration to have a reverse T for the arrow keys. Otherwise very solid laptop, would be my first non-Mac choice.
I've extracted the Chromium-EC encryption functions, they are convenient for signing / verifying firmware on other platforms. Chromium-ec is nice for example code like this:<p><a href="https://github.com/jhallen/rsa-verify" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/jhallen/rsa-verify</a><p>On the other hand, if you are looking for some generic embedded system code all in C, here is our library (it's been cleaned up for ATSAM and STM32 targets, but we've used in on many other platforms):<p><a href="https://github.com/nklabs/libnklabs" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/nklabs/libnklabs</a><p>I think it's most unique feature is the embedded schema-based database- so you can save things like calibration and configuration information in local flash memory (think protocol buffers, but for tiny systems). Recently I've been adding device drivers for all common devices I can find on break-out boards from the Arduino and Raspberry-PI communities.
I bought a Framework for personal use and love it so much. I have it running Windows 11, if only because it was easier to get longer battery life out of it without doing endless tweaks on a *nix OS.<p>Upsides:<p>- Hardware feels VERY premium and nice. It's not too heavy. You'd never guess it's the first laptop made by a new company.<p>- Keyboard is a pleasure to type on. I did nanowrimo last year on it and wrote ~60k words and never had a complaint.<p>- Company and its mission are awesome! Support team is very helpful and their communication has been great.<p>- Guides on the website for opening it up and replacing/fixing parts is amazing. If anything I hope I can keep this thing running for many many years.<p>- Choosing what ports you want via the expansion cards is really nice (USB-C charging on BOTH sides of the laptop?!?! amazing)<p>Downsides:<p>- Battery could be better. I get probably 3-6 hours on Win11 depending on what I'm doing.<p>- It can get HOT. I have the i7 processor; doing light dev work with a few Docker images running and VSCode with a medium-sized Node project open, it gets uncomfortably warm on my lap and the fan occasionally spins up. I played through Inscryption on it (awesome indie game, built in Unity) and the fan was EXTREMELY loud during the whole thing because it was making heavy work of the integrated graphics card. Just browsing the web or watching videos it is cool and silent, though.<p>- Because of issues with Tiger Lake, S3 sleep isn't supported so if it sleeps when you close the lid, the battery will continue to drain for a bit and eventually it'll go into hibernation. I set mine to just go into hibernation when the lid is closed which saves the battery more if I'm on-the-go. It takes around 11 seconds to wake from hibernation which isn't bad. Not an issue with the Framework specifically, I think this affects all Tiger Lake processors.<p>- Expansion cards are a bit of a novelty for me. I have 2x USB-C, 1x USB-A, 1X HDMI and don't see myself changing that any time soon and can't really think of any expansion cards I'd need in the future.<p>Looking forward the question at the top of my mind is "will this actually be upgradeable?"... if they ever release AMD or ARM-based processors, it'd be great to try them out, but you'd have to swap out the whole mainboard which is a bummer (but understandable given the hardware constraints). Different screen sizes would require a whole new laptop but at least you could bring along the internals. A touch screen would be really nice.
Call me when you get better display panels. Hopefully Linus Sebastian's obsession with OLED will help push the display is a higher-end direction -- or at least have the option.
A thread from two weeks ago gave me pause; I will wait a couple iterations until considering a Framework laptop to see if at least the software issues can be resolved and observe how the team navigates the waters.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29806430" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29806430</a>
What is the reason behind closed firmware? I understand that wifi devices may operate out of the certification depending on what the firmware does, but other devices... why do they have closed firmwares?
Man I remember reading this CEO's hobby blog a decade ago. Glad to see him doing cool stuff <a href="https://eclecti.cc/" rel="nofollow">https://eclecti.cc/</a>
Side note: the language selection is stupid on the website. No, I'm not from Germany, and I don't speak German even if it's the closest country to me that you sell laptops in. Also, it's a bad practice to associate flags with languages. Or to give options that don't work after you select them.<p>Otherwise, very nice news!
This is not related directly to the announcement, but touches on a thing that infuriates me to no end - for some reason the site assumed that because I live in the EU and relatively close to German border, I speak German and presented the site in that language. Despite my high-school teacher's heroic efforts, I can at best understand a few basic phrases. I didn't even know what to click in the cookie pop-up to kindly ask them to not track me.<p>Language auto detection^W assumption is such an anti-feature.<p>/rant<p>edit: I see I am not alone, who got hit by this.