IMHO, handling it well would mean recalling and replacing the defective mainboards (so long as they’re in warranty). They must have a ton of brand equity / good will if customers are that willing to roll up their sleeves.
Just remember, this flaw was on the one model right at the start of the company. Recalling the boards at that point (where the company probably wasn't making a profit yet) could have killed the company. Definitely not worth doing.
But short of a total recall, they did the next best thing. They released detailed instructions on how to repair a laptop while having the schematics for the laptop be open, and going out of their way to design the laptop in such a way to make repair as easy as possible, and said that self repairs would not affect any warrantees.
No other laptop manufacturer would have done that.
That's why they are seen as good in the community's eyes.
> No other laptop manufacturer would have done that. > That's why they are seen as good in the community's eyes.
Yep.
We're not aiming for _perfect_ here. Framework just has to be better than the abysmally low bar set by (almost) every other laptop maker.
Which was fine at the time, but would have preferred to just RMA the unit so I would have a working unit (we purchased to test for business use).
Yes! As another owner of the FW13, if they released some kind of external adapter for the FW16 GPU I'd definitely purchase the GPU and the adapter the day its open for sale.
Unsure how viable that would be, but it would help justify that proof of concept (imho).
Would be really cool if the GPU could serve multiple devices across generations like that somehow, eventually. Buy one FW laptop, upgrade it, use the old parts for a new handheld, use the old GPU as a dock for that handheld when you get a new one for the laptop.
My 12th gen has issues with abysmal battery life while sleeping (not just the regular Intel 12th gen sleep complaints, but batt life varies greatly depending on which expansion cards you have on the laptop while sleeping eg USB-A vs -C). Framework has been beta testing a FW update to partially improve this since 2022 and last I checked the beta still had side effects like bricking the left USB-C ports under certain conditions.
Even though Fedora is (afaict?) the best supposed Linux distro, there's still known issues that have persisted for years like the brightness keys not working (there's technically a workaround but it breaks a different feature that I would like to use)
If the laptop as it is today meets your needs, go for it... but one shouldn't buy it assuming that known issues will be fixed later on.
As someone who had a 12th-gen mainboard and upgraded to an AMD board, and assuming you meant "supported" here, the rest of the points here are fine but this one rather explicitly is off. Ubuntu is the primary supported distro across the board: https://frame.work/linux
Fedora was recommended for AMD mainboards when Framework started shipping them, because Fedora ships newer kernels sooner, which got upstream AMD compatibility fixes out faster, which meant Fedora users could install Framework's firmware, driver, and BIOS updates sooner with fewer workarounds.
When Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS shipped a 6.2 kernel in August, it went back in front across mainboards.
I did switch from the glossy to matte display, which was a massive improvement for use on the go.
To be perfectly honest, I don't really know how much battery I would lose - the laptop is rarely untouched for more than a day or so and in the rare situations when it has been, it has been either completely powered off or left plugged in. I don't know if it's ever been in a situation where it was left in a sleep-state for multiple days.
It can take 10-20 seconds to boot up but battery drain while not is use has dropped to maybe 2% for any extended periods of non-use. As an 11th gen user, it exacerbates the CMOS problem I mentioned earlier but that hopefully shouldn't be an issue with the 12th gen mainboards.
This is a guide I've seen recommended: https://community.frame.work/t/guide-fedora-36-hibernation-w...
Hope that helps.
After two years of sporadic use, our engineer with Fedora+Framework gave it up as it started burning him (2nd degree)!
Overall, I liked the experience and the mission, but was sad we've had the experience of glitch+burning.
My only negative with it has been the issue specific to 11th gens where the CMOS drains and eventually dies if the laptop is left unplugged for days-to-weeks at a time.
On the whole Framework handled the issue well, there was no permanent fix without soldering or replacing the board. The company was upfront, provided support, a replacement battery, and even published a how-to on modifying the mainboard after the fact. With a start-up I was expecting some bugs. This one was irritating but not a deal breaker. I think how they handled the problem and how they've proven their commitment to upgradeability through the 12th, 13th, and Ryzen boards speaks well of the company.
While I am extremely keen on the AMD versions that have rolled out recently, I can't justify the purchase when my current FW13 still works well enough.
The FW16 probably isn't for me but I hope it's successful. I really want to see the docking station that can double as an eGPU using the FW16 discrete GPU module. There was a prototype mentioned in passing about a year ago but it's been radio silence since then. I hope the success of Framework laptops and the growing market for gaming handhelds like the Steam Deck makes the modular eGPU concept a little more reasonable. It's still incredibly niche but one can dream.