This is a guess based on a couple years in a repair shop, I could be completely wrong.
In the context of the Framework, I think it seems to be the intention of the designers that you buy replacement parts and replace them yourself.
I think it's great that we're able to fix our own machines, and I think it's wonderful to teach people to fix their own machines, but it's ablist to assume everyone has the ability to do so. I don't.
Moreover, there are lots of people who support Right to Repair but don't want to have to repair their own equipment. Wouldn't it be lovely to be able to take your computer down to a repair shop or have someone come over and fix it?
You are right my reply was framed in ableist language. I apologize for that -- I appreciate your feedback and will try to do better going forward.
It cost more than a macbook ARM, and you get less perf, worse battery, worse cooling, and less support, yes you get to repair it yourself and more easily, but i never had to repair my macbooks (other than changing the battery, and that was easy to do myself, and looks like it is still easy on the ARM ones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l_Dw_5_JJk)
In any case, these machines are not even remotely as close as people paint them to be. That Macbook Air won't have a 32-gig (or 64 gig) option for memory, much less a fully replaceable and upgradable mainboard with swappable NVMe drives. Plus, it's only got a paltry 2 ports of IO, one of which will be occupied by the charger (the other presumably plugged into the SINGLE DISPLAY that the Air supports).
They're different devices for different people. I think the Framework is surprisingly cheap for what it offers, and I'll happily pick one up when the Alder Lake models get stocked.
How come a machine like this doesn't have flawless Linux support? Such a lost opportunity...
My experience is that it takes about two years to get 90% or better hardware support on a new one.
Interested, got a reference?
I'd love to love these guys, but it's not yet baked enough for me.
It is time to choose, brothers and sister - do you want to be the problem or do you want to be the solution?
The battery life, as other have mentioned, is poor.
The Linux support is "OK", and improved greatly when I upgraded to the latest Ubuntu and what I assume is a host of updated proprietary drivers.
But the system also got regularly stuck in a mode where it wouldn't wake up from sleep, for weeks, until one day it simply couldn't be woken up, even after having no power. Tech support was competent, but slow, with replies every next business day.
Resetting the sleep situation also required taking the unit apart, which seems silly.
And one of the dongles that it comes with, the USB-A one, totally flaked out on me.
And at the end of the day, while repairability is lovely, so is a tech support line you can call and talk to a human being, so is a depot you can send the laptop to, and so is being able to pay for a repair person to come and fix my work machine.
These are premium asks, the repair person in particular, and I know that big companies like Dell and Lenovo can only offer them based on bulk sales, but I'd be willing to pay for this, but it's not offered.
Right now, the laptop is good, but I wouldn't buy one. They say their next model will have better Linux support, and be better in other ways. I'd wait for that and hope that Framework also works out a better tech support system.