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Comment by ramanujank | Hacker News Reader

Congratulations to the founder(s) on the launch. Wishing you nothing but success! Nice to see a pluggable approach at a time when "repairability" is catching the fancy of the whole world.

If I had to nitpick, it would be the fact that Linux is unfortunately a second class citizen. However, I do see that support for mainstream distros is available. Can you possibly shed some light on that and be a bit more specific? What distros have you tested? What are the outcomes?

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We dogfood regularly on Ubuntu LTS and Fedora, and we've been working with the team at Fedora (and have provided them a pre-release unit). In general, the only issue we foresee in the near term is that the fingerprint reader likely won't work out of the box in Linux. There is a driver though, and we're working on making that setup as easy as possible until it is in mainline.

Can you please ensure that you support Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS)[1] i.e ensure your vendors support it.

Edit: Bit more rant about LVFS goodness

Even my Logitech 2.4 Ghz receiver gets regular updates on LVFS, can't remember it happening even with official Logitech SW on Mac/Windows. LVFS fixes the embedded controller security/bugs mess. A functional laptop like Framework when released with first class support for Linux features like LVFS can add more value to the customer.

[1]https://fwupd.org/

Definitely! We're set up as a vendor there and will be using it for updates in the future: https://fwupd.org/lvfs/vendors/#framework

Yay! Added some more rant about LVFS to my original comment.

Do you plan to sell the prebuilt systems with linux preinstalled (or with no OS)? I have no desire for my money to go to Microsoft, and no desire for Windows, but the prebuilt model is intriguing to me.

Preloading a Linux distro is something we may do in the future. We've made the DIY Edition super easy to set up though for folks who don't want Windows in the meantime.

preinstalled linux is a hard requirement for many users, even if they want to reinstall it themselves. It gives an assurance that CPU throttling, suspension, hibernation, will work correctly. Otherwise it feels like a lottery. Of course a linux install is easy and will always work; but will it work correctly? If you offer preinstalled linuxes we can be sure it does.

> If you offer preinstalled linuxes we can be sure it does.

With that one specific preinstalled kernel image.

> It gives an assurance that CPU throttling, suspension, hibernation, will work correctly.

For what it's worth, I had two XPS 13s in a row and the one that came with Ubuntu pre-installed had _way_ worse hardware compatibility problems.

I'd buy this in a heartbeat if I could get a guarantee that it would work well with Linux. Having Linux pre-installed is one way to signal confidence that it works well with Linux.

It sounds like they're internally running Linux on these, which also seems like a pretty good sign?

Doesn't mean that all of the peripherals work ideally, or that power management works ideally.

I will be on your wait list for the pro the moment I can order it with Linux preinstalled.

We? You helped with this? You guys rock!

Now there's a repairable, upgradable choice, it's going to be hard to get me to do anything else.

My nitpicking is about its offering only Intel CPUs. Hello? Why do Intel at all, these days? What everybody is desperate for are AMD laptops, which are barely available from the volume makers.

This is my guess:

1. AMD is having major supply issues and is not allocating their supply towards laptops. Laptops are just not a huge priority for them right now when all of the consoles, desktop CPUs, and GPUs are flying off the shelves.

2. Intel not only has consistent supply but Intel frequently works with "experimental" projects like this helping OEMs with design. Complete speculation but I would not be surprised if Intel had a hand in the design of this laptop.

Agreed. Zen3 would’ve been killer and cooler to boot.

I wonder if it is a supply concern? Zen2 laptops also ~seemed~ in scarce supply for quite some time last year, even after the launch.

How to tease out Intel’s anti-competitive belligerence versus actual supply issues? Zen3 on desktop seems to be regularly available, but desktop is lower volume than mobile.

This really deserves an AMD variant.

I would suspect Intel has juicy bundle discounts, especially if this is a part of the EVO program (which I don’t think it publicly is).

I love my HP Omen laptop - the guts are beautifully designed.

I really like the idea of Framework - especially how easily the KB appears to be replaceable.

The keyboards on the Clio made S76 machines I had (gazelles) were completely non-replaceable.

What would be great ultimately is a splash-proof kb on a machine.

And if even the volume makers barely have the stuff available, always sold out immediately, you think they'd have an easier time?

Intel coerces the big guys by gaming their supply chain.

A little startup will not have got the attention of Intel, and their total volume needs are much more easily satisfied by what they can get from AMD's limited delivery than a big player could be.

You can see many interesting niche Intel Inside devices from china, like GPD.

Because Intel is willing to pay ODMs for pushing chips. If you want AMD go and buy ~$700 Acer Swift 3 14 Ryzen 7 4700U 16GB 512GB same 3:2 2K IPS screen.

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