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Comment by cf100clunk | Hacker News Reader

There is a need for this, but is there a large enough market? I will look seriously at this product for my next laptop. It seems to follow a similar philosophy in the notebook market as Purism's does in the mini-PC, rack server, and mobile phone markets.

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The key to the market size is that we've designed the Framework Laptop to be a real substitute for a Dell XPS, Microsoft Surface Laptop, HP Spectre, or ThinkPad for more mainstream audiences who want to run Windows 10. The size, weight, performance, display, and general look and feel are on par with those products, and then within those constraints, we've enabled customization, upgradeability, and repairability.

Today it's likely we're bootstrapping off of more niche, enthusiast audiences to reach the mainstream, but over the longer term, the mainstream helps us fuel the ecosystem to keep delivering awesome products for smaller audiences.

Pruism, Framework, System76 - I think it's less about whether the market is big enough, but more about other effects that allow you to survive in smaller niches.

I think today it is just became cheaper for sample companies to offer laptops that can compete with the big names. The Clevo machines of old looked really bad next to a MacBook, today, while still less nice, they are flat and light and minimal as well.

> Pruism, Framework, System76

If there's anything that the past 20 years of American Capitalism has taught us: these companies should all merge, integrate their hardware and software, and then get a bunch of VC money until they are the single, truly-free personal hardware vendor in the market.

And then slowly inevitably do a 180 on all the original principles in the name of bigger numbers between Q1 and Q2.

Purism is Social Purpose Corporation, so it shouldn't work for them.

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