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Comment by dheera | Hacker News Reader

My biggest gripe is that for something intended to be DIY upgradable, 2 years later, there is a complete lack of ecosystem and parts for it.

I was hoping for pluggable modules for {IMU, GPS, barometer, geiger counter, air quality sensor, software-defined radio, 5G cellular, RGB LEDs, power-over-ethernet charging, even a small motor module so the laptop can drag itself around on the table}. And what do we get? Some stupid 2nd hand USB-C passthrough and HDMI modules.

Not even a 2-USB-C module that the forums have been asking for ages.

Not even a Dvorak keyboard.

No e-Ink display option. No flush mount bezel option.

No multiple camera options. No depth camera. No LIDAR. No 4K webcam. No low-light StarVis webcam. No stereo cam. No infrared webcam.

No nothing. The ecosystem doesn't even exist.

I was hoping for this to be the Raspberry Pi of laptops with a huge pile of parts on SeeedStudio and AliExpress that you can plug into it.

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For the Expansion Cards you noted, several have been created by members of the Framework Community, and a few folks have started to sell the modules they are creating: https://community.frame.work/c/developer-program/85

Josh Cook is probably the most prolific developer and has most of his designs available for preorder: https://community.frame.work/t/custom-framework-module-purch...

While I appreciate that this is happening, these projects are painfully difficult to discover as someone not active on the forums or Discord.

Are there plans to open the Framework marketplace to creators so that parts like Josh Cook's can be visible, or even sold, in the same storefront as Framework's own parts? Or regularly promoting community parts and designs on official channels outside of the forum?

Part of the reason is the compliance requirements. You need to pay quite a bit of money to USB-IF if you want to make anything USB and this is recurring as far as I know. There's also the other things like tests for EMC and ESD and whatnot. It either needs a big player to step up (you can use the same USB-IF membership for some tens of thousands of devices) or there should be a big enough market to support a smaller scale designer/manufacturer.

Just don't pay those idiots? I doubt most of the USB devices on Alibaba pay USB-IF.

I guess this means not that many people buy Framework laptops, or at least not enough Framework users are interested enough in tweaking the laptop. Compare this situation to >$300 ergonomic keyboard circle, you might think that is an extremely niche market, but sounds like there are more weird keyboards out there than DIY framework parts.

They need to sell millions before third parties will support them. When they do (and get firmware handled) they’ll be ready quickly.

If they ever do expand to China I'm sure this will come. I'm somewhat disappointed too, especially the lack of the long-promised 'creator-marketplace'.

Overall though, I'm still more than happy with my 11th gen. It's far better than any laptop I've had before and I have next to no complaints about it as a laptop.

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