Framework lapop anyone?

Currently rocking the 7840U board, originally started with the 1186g7 i7 board. Would love to build a tablet around the 7840U board with adequate cooling, then swap the new Ryzen 9 board into the Framework 13. I bet a tablet idea would be a good project for here!

Touch-screens are a bind. I have an X1 Yoga which does both but the keys don't pull inside on the version I have so it's far from ideal. Definitely sounds a decent project. I wonder what sort of capacitive touch-screen displays of a decent size are around? Mind you this is more build it from new than Matt's more usual upcycling. I've got a couple of follow-ups to do after tomorrow and then I'll give some of the recent suggestions some thought. This latest one is a blinder! (Not literally... but it could be if you stare a the bulb too long.)

That's a good point, I bet a touchscreen display that could be connected over USB-C would work fine.....I think this was worked on in the past: https://community.frame.work/t/framework-tablet-project/16690/58

I'd love to be able to get my AnkerMake3D set back up in the new living room to start printing a case for it.

Sounds like a plan to me @s31bz! I need to get my metalworking skills out of the "bang the rocks together" level they're at now and make a decent frame.

Honestly I love the idea behind Framework laptops. So many laptops these days are plastic junk, and they break so easily (I know someone who went through 3 laptops in as many years, all from different brands), that the idea of being able to easily replace individual components as they break is very appealing. The DIY possibilities are also very numerous. However, I don't think my wallet would speak to me for at least 6 months if I bought one...$800 is no small sum of money.

My wallet ran away with the last of my cash and the the credit card still won't speak to me after I finally caved. So I smashed the piggy bank and raided the kid's college fund (not that they'll notice) and put the cat on beef dripping  so I could just to day treat myself to a FW 16. Not the latest one either but unlike other laptops this can be upgraded which is essential to me.

My cat - and he's a big lad - loves to launch himself on the machine (which is on my lap) and over the last couple of years he's destroyed, I think it's three laptop keyboards, every single one of which was affixed to the "palm rest". That made the repairs too expensive to be worthwhile so I soldiered on for as long as I could and eventually managed to snag a decent deal. (Sobs...)

Was it worth it?

Yes and no. The thing with bijou companies like FW is you pay a premium like people used to pay a premium for Tesla cars. Now everyone makes an electric car (and they're all better than the Swasticar) so we have a choice.

The build quality is good but not stellar and the modularity means I have a couple of filler plates on one side (below the number pad)  that look like an afterthought. It's also heavy and fairly loud when playing even modest games. Fine for design work, word processing and such which is what I spend 95% of my time doing.

Screen is bright and clear and the speakers are pretty good too - but again, nothing astonishing. 

Main thing is if the Mighty Bulk decides to take a flying leap from the display cabinet onto the machine, I can swap out a keyboard in under five minutes and they're less than the cost of a palmrest/keyboard and trackpad from the likes of Lenovo, Dell, HP etc.

@marcdraco Honestly I'd have expected more from a laptop "specced out" like that. With the cheapest / most-budget-reasonable options selected (Ryzen 7 processor, 16gb RAM, 500gb SSD, etc.) , the Framework 16 comes to more than $2000. At that point, I might as well get myself a MacBook Pro and have ridiculously good performance instead of, for lack of a better phrase, easy swappage. I get that it must be expensive to design these laptops, but come on--$2000? I can get a laptop that beats most powerful desktops and a 4k 120hz monitor (the screen) for that much money.

I still really want one though 😁.

I was an Apple evangelist (some would call "fanboi") when Steve Jobs was alive.  The Tim Cook took over after his passing and things just went sideways. Apple was never great for repairability, but reliability was always pretty good. At least as good as the other major names.

After Steve (who might have been an arrogant bully, well almost certainly was) the quality of the chip design went into the stratosphere almost as fast as Mac OS X and the build quality of the machines fell into a trench.

The M* series of processors are second to none in the mass market, trouncing Intel and AMD but I'm sure you know that.

But as an occasional repair guy, I just saw failure after failure of things as dumb as the command bar on the laptops and even stuff like the hall sensor for the laptop lid. Horrendous quality control and as good as impossible for the third party guys to repair.

OS X similarly got more fancy features with maybe 10+ bugs per feature and (last I looked) the old bugs simply don't get addressed with users being forced into newer and newer machines.

That was it for me.

I'm 100% Linux (Debian 13 with Gnome) although there is one suit of software that I will need to typeset and complete the book that I have to run (begrudgingly) on Windows With luck I'll be able to containerise Windows using something WinBoat but it's a couple of months away yet.

If the FW 16 was more like $1,500 the price would make more sense but as a low-volume manufacturer (and a bit like early Tesla) the only game in town we're in a bit of a fix (if you'll pardon the pun).

@marcdraco Ah, I didn't know that about Apple's laptops. I'd always heard that they were great all around, and never bothered to dig very deep into the build quality side of it. I have a MacBook (albeit a 2009 Intel MacBook) and the build quality is great--it's like I'm typing on a block of solid aluminium. This also means that every time I carry it around it becomes impromptu arm day, but I digress. But judging from what you've said, the build quality has gotten worse. Do you have an opinion on the Mac Mini? I've heard a lot of good stuff about it, especially the M4.

I would also love to go 100% Linux--the aforementioned MacBook is running Linux Mint Cinnamon--but I use DaVinci Resolve, which is a video editor that I cannot for the life of me figure out how to run on Linux. I've followed all the tutorials, and nothing works. 

Anyway, returning to Framework, I guess I'll just wait until they're more popular laptops. I'm sure it's only a matter of time; after all, the concept is great, and I'm sure it would appeal to a lot of people if they only knew about it. I love building different types of PCs, especially unconventional ones, so I can't wait to get my hands on one of their motherboards...until then, I make do with removing the innards of old DELLs.

Works for me if it works for you mate. The 2009 machines were OK as recall (if a little fragile being ally) but if you look around YT repair channels you'll see some horror stories.

I think you'll find running Resolve "challenging" on Linux, however my HTPC runs Nobara 42 (I think they're at 43 now) but anyway, there's a specific menu option after you've installed it to configure the system to run Resolve!

Noice.

@marcdraco Honestly it is a bit of a horror story. It doesn't like to power on most of the time, and it likes to shut down randomly at least three times per day. I frequently question the sanity of my decision to use it.

"Challenging" is almost right. Infuriating I think is a more accurate term. I've actually gotten it installed a few times, but then it doesn't run in some way or another. Nobara is based on Fedora, I think, which I've also tried--how is it, by the way? Nobara, I mean. How does it compare to other distros like Mint, or Pop_OS?

Aimed at gamers but it has a couple of solid desktops, KDE which is windows/cinnamon like and Gnome which is awesome with touch and (for me) a lot easier to use. YMMV of course. 🤔 

Sounds like the machine might need a re-ball. That's an expensive job. Until I got drunk and ordered this thing, I used to get old Lenovos. The Thinkpads are good - the Yoga not so much. Too much to go wrong.

HP and Dell do some good professional machines which can be had for a few $100

@marcdraco It's sounding pretty tempting. Even if it doesn't end up being my favorite distro, I think I'll try it, simply because it can run Resolve. I've used Fedora with KDE Plasma, and I like it a lot, so maybe I'll like this one.

Probably worth getting the latest version (43 I think) the updates can be cruel if you have to update a full version number. 

It's got an excellent pedigree though with Glorious Eggroll (really, that's his handle) maintaining it.