When I first heard about the port changing feature I thought it was cool and useful. But i am now starting to wonder how often it would be used even by myself if I had one.
Rather, it's so everyone can get the ports they want with minimal overhead for Framework the company (fewer SKUs, less spare inventory, etc.).
It's like LEGO: You can put together exactly what you want using exactly the bricks you want, and you aren't expected to take it all apart and build something new the next day just because you could either.
That's the question, though: What is "bog standard"?
Apple will tell you bog standard is two USB-C ports.
A tech enthusiast will tell you bog standard is at least 10 mixed USB-A and -C ports, at least three DisplayPorts, at least one ethernet jack, and a headphone jack.
Jane Average over there will tell you bog standard is a power button.
A DIYer will tell you bog standard is GPIO and serial.
USB-IF will tell you bog standard is USB4.11 For Workgroups Revision 5 Type D 50gbps 2x4.
Joking aside, to my mind bog standard is by definition not given by Apple, enthusiasts, hardware hackers, USB-IF, or someone who never needs a port ever. My mom is very tech illiterate and even she uses a cheap wireless mouse, and other USB stuff.
It's obviously something Framework would have to research and think about. But I don't think it's unreasonable to say there is some definition of bog standard that should be able to serve 80% of customers. Where the 20% is made up of various niches that are happy to pay a premium for the modularity because they really need it.
One option might be to have a backplate adapter similar to ATX motherboards, where that just slots into the case itself attached to the motherboard... so Gen 3 could have 3x usb-c, 1 usb-a and a 4-pole headphone jack... Then all usb-c + headphone a generation after... but the horizontal spacing pre-defined like ATX backplane.
1. None of the machines I have to switch between have remotely enough sockets for the USB devices I actually need to use. Mouse, keyboard, headset, external webcam, yubikey are all USB-A. For the machines I've got that are USB-C only I need at least two hubs daisy-chained if I want to have the first in the chain be something I can put in my bag.
2. If I try to power some of them through the hub, they complain that they can't get enough power.
3. If I plug those same ones into the power directly, I don't have enough ports to also have a USB-C monitor connection, forcing that over onto HDMI.
4. Only one of the machines I use has an HDMI socket, but the hub I tend to use has one so that's usually fine.
5. It's not fine on my XPS13, which for some reason can't power both its own screen and the external screen when plugged into the hub, and it goes into a flickery loop as it tries, fails, and resets. So that's either lid-closed-only, or is the only device connected over USB-C as a direct connection, which means an extra plug to plug in for only that laptop, and I end up fiddling with the screen controls every time I switch to it.
This is supposed to be a unified ecosystem but it just falls apart in practice, and my desk has never had more wiring all over it. I get that I'm an outlier here: two work laptops, two personal laptops, and regularly needing to use any of them, but there's nothing I'm trying to do that's outside what USB-C claims to be within its sphere of capability. Maybe the problem is the hub I've got but if that's the case I can't see how you're supposed to make better purchases. The ecosystem just seems to be broken.
Additionally, fewer is fewer, regardless of scale. 999,999 of something is fewer than 1,000,000 of something.
So yes, the "Lego approach" would mean fewer SKUs.
My 14inch macbook pro has a power jack(magsafe), three Thunderbolt ports, an SD card slot, HDMI, and a really low-noise, high-power fantastic 3.5mm. About the only thing I really would ever want is ethernet but even then I probably would rather dock the machine over TB anywhere I would use that. It is just is so much better than plugging in 4 cables.
(Side note: It's kinda surprising that mankind has not invented a smaller RJ45)
I've had one, thing was pretty flimsy and required finagling to use. Meh.
> Personally I find the choice of SD card slot puzzling
Something like 90% of the photography market uses a Mac.
I heard probably more hoopla about that SD card slot than anything else when it was announced.
Like HDMI, or USB-A, or MagSafe.
The 2016 macbooks were...something.
FWIIW though...Modern Mirrorless cameras tend to have high-performance USB-C. Some also have internal storage. But the value of swapping media in a camera is critical for organization however. Many Cameras also have dual SD slots for mirroring.