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Comment by kzrdude | Hacker News Reader

Their modular ports use a lot of space, they could have much more ports built in, unfortunately.

Yeah, being limited to only 4 ports is a complete non-starter for me especially when you are required to use one of them to charge the laptop. So practically everybody is going to end up filling one of those modular ports with a USB-C module, when they could have easily fit two dedicated USB-C ports in the same space, with no practical loss in expandability.

With them being modular, if what you say is true space wise, then I'd expect there to be a module with 2 ports in it eventually.

I was reading some forums on their website a little while ago and they said that seemed unlikely with a decent amount of space being used by the mounting mechanism and whatnot. It would be nice, though.

I think the issue with this is the number of thunderbolt ports provided by the chipset. They have to choose between having only 4 ports that all work the same way or more than that where they don't all have the same features.

In the future if another alternative to USB-C PD arrives, you could presumably swap out to that module (of course, presuming it's otherwise compatible with the internals).

Also, is there any reason to believe someone wouldn't make a two-port USB-C module provided the market for such a thing exists? Maybe off-the-shelf ICs to do this aren't available (which would make this more expensive and thus less likely), but that doesn't mean that will always be the case.

> In the future if another alternative to USB-C PD arrives, you could presumably swap out to that module (of course, presuming it's otherwise compatible with the internals).

The module itself works over USB-C PD, so the only effect of such a module would be to convert the new standard back to USB-C PD with all its limitations, plus the cost of conversion.

The existing ports are thunderbolt, so they may be able to do some things that basic USB PD can't

True, but that still might be desirable if there's a new cable standard that is otherwise compatible -- beats making the entire laptop obsolete.

As a thought experiment: If the Framework laptop existed prior to USB-C PD, it would have been a very cool feature to be able to add a USB-C PD module and effectively upgrade the laptop to support it.

It'll be interesting to see if the internal USB-C design works out in the long run. My instinct would have been to build a larger (proprietary) internal connector for the modules that included charging, constant and switched power, USB, and as many PCIe data lines as possible.

No one wants all the different ports though, they usually just want the correct ports. If you're plugging more than 4 things into your laptop at once you should be using a dock.

Maybe a great laptop would have 4 usb-c, hdmi and sd card reader? We can be ambitious :)

If Framework opens this up for other companies to make modules, you might also see something like a USB port module with an integrated Logitech wireless mouse receiver. So then your mouse isn't even taking up a port.

I know Bluetooth is a thing but you get the point. All of those tiny devices that people keep plugged into their laptop ports 24/7? This is a much better form factor for them, and you don't necessarily need to sacrifice a port for them either.

> If Framework opens this up for other companies to make modules

From what I can tell, they already did that: https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/ExpansionCards

> USB port module with an integrated Logitech wireless mouse receiver

This guy seems to be making something like that (minus the USB port): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_uOzNt-xwY

People are working on some interesting stuff. Example:

RP2040 expansion card: https://community.frame.work/t/rp2040-microcontroller-expans...

The engineers at framework seem to be very active on the forum engaging with the community.

I don't want all the different ports at once, but I definitely use more than 4 in total. My current laptop the following (and I'd love to have more):

- 2 USB-C (1 of which is used for charging, I'll probably have reason to use the other at some point with increasing USB-C adoption)

- 2 USB-A (1 for a wireless mouse, 1 frequently used for flash drives and whatnot)

- SD (used occasionally - cameras and with an adapter for micro SD in phones)

- RJ-45 (used occasionally, probably more often soon)

- HDMI (used somewhat regularly)

- Headphone jack (also built into the Framework)

So with the Framework I'd be missing out on 3 ports. I could survive with that, but it'd be pretty sub-optimal. Thankfully I shouldn't be in the market for a new laptop for 5+ years, so hopefully Framework will have more options by then.

I'm using an external display connected via Thunderbolt/USB-C instead of HDMI so I can use the display to

- power the laptop

- plug in the mouse plug into its USB-A port

I do exactly the same, it's been really smooth that way (on Ubuntu)

That would work if I got an external display (which I should at some point), although I think it harms the portability a little bit.

If you don't want all the ports at once, then it sounds like modular ports is perfect? You can just attach whichever combination you need on any given day / moment. Or am I missing something?

Fair enough, that wasn't really something I was thinking of. Of course, at that point you're really just changing from having to carry around a bag of dongles to a bag of ports. Not having to remember to have to put in/bring my HDMI port to a presentation is a little bit convenient.

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