If not, are they open to that? If I wanted to say, make something more "thinkpad" like for people to swap things out, would they openly support me selling this?
TL;DR:
I really wanted an all-AMD laptop (with dGPU) for development and gaming on Linux [0].
So my first purchase was (IIRC) an ASUS ROG Strix G15 [1]. But I really hated the feel of the key caps and their action, so I sold it.
I ended up settling on a Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (16ACH6H). I'm still bummed about the non-AMD dGPU, but I'm confident I made the right trade-off.
[0] I didn't need an nVidia GPU because I wasn't doing CUDA development. And I've had better luck with AMD's Linux drivers than with nVidia's.
[1] https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-strix-g15-advantage-ed...
Just recently my vscode extensions were all inexplicably failing, and I traced it back to electron messing up, which I discovered only happens when the Nvidia driver is loaded even though I am not even using it for rendering... And this took forever to trace.
I can choose Wayland XOR external displays. I can update any kernel or driver and reboot days later, unless Nvidia's software gets involved.
The Intel GPU also has some issues (random flickering on fullscreen applications for some obscure reason I just can't figure out) but they're much less "how can you possibly have missed this" and more "this seems like an unfortunate edge case".
Wayland compatibility is one of the potential reasons I'd like my next Linux laptop to have an AMD dGPU.
From what I've seen on the Steam Deck, everything just seems to work out of the box.
It basically comes down to the typical reasons people use Linux rather than Windows.
For the sake of world peace, I'm going to leave that debate for another forum :)
If framework announced this laptop before I bought mine, I would probably have waited and stuck with my old junk until it became available.
I'm looking for a laptop, and keyboard quality is also one of my top priorities. One of my criteria is FULL-SIZE ARROW KEYS. I don't know how people use their computers nowadays, but arrow keys are something I use a lot, and I cannot understand why laptop makers decided to make the up and down arrows the smallest keys on the keyboard. That makes no sense whatsoever.
Sadly, the only laptops with full size arrow keys I found are gaming laptops (disqualified because they're heavy, expensive and have bad battery life), some large laptops with a number pad (which I dislike because it makes for an off-center keybaord) and some Thinkpads -- which have something like 3/4-size arrow keys, better than most but not what I would prefer.
If this laptop comes with an optional keyboard with full-size arrow keys, I will probably buy one.
(I also had similar problems when I wanted to buy a regular mouse with three buttons (index, middle, ring finger) plus a wheel. Went through several gaming and ergonomic monstrosities before finding my holy grail -- 3DConnexion CADMouse Wireless. Not affiliated, just a satisfied customer).
If someone reading this knows of a modern ultrabook-format laptop with decent battery life, at least 1920x1200 screen, good Linux compatibility and a keyboard with full size arrow keys, I will be eternally grateful.