Framework Laptop's mainboard is now open source and available for purchase separately

frame.work Mainboard Availability and Open Source Release

The Framework Laptop Mainboard is now available in the Framework Marketplace!

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Framework:
doesn't offer Linux preinstalled
doesn't ship fully assembled laptops without Windows (only the "DIY" edition you must assemble yourself can ship without Windows)
just now (April 2022, over two years late) finally put up a Linux compatibility page which currently describes Ubuntu 21.10 as "🤔 medium difficulty"
doesn't have a free software BIOS or EC firmware
Meanwhile companies like Purism, System76, and Starlabs are shipping modern laptops with various distros preinstalled, never shipping windows, shipping coreboot, and (in the case of the first two, at least, and especially the first) funding the development of free software.
- It's listed as "medium difficulty" due to newer hardware in the laptop not being fully compatible with the kernel shipped in that old version of Ubuntu. I believe 22.04 is compatible out of the box.
  I had to use a Debian sid nightly installer to set up Debian on my laptop, no big deal for me but for someone new to Linux I can see why that might be off-putting.
- Framework wasn't founded to push free software, but rather repairable hardware. I don't know what you were expecting.
  Plus if you were following them, you would know they had linux info from the beginning, it was just not put in a simple page like this yet.
  (And why is it two years late)?
- And the 'modular' features are just USBC adapters in a fancy case. I dont see the appeal.
  
  They are swappable ports using thunderbolt. + the screen, bezel, keyboard, touchpad, battery, wifi module, mainboard etc. are basically all easily accessible.

7 comments