The Framework Laptop Discussion

 So those of you who know me, know that I use Macs and Mac OS.

I think their hardware is pretty good, and I think the operating system is great for the average user.

When I say the hardware is good, I mean they have excellent screens, great keyboards (both feeling and that they are backlit on most models), a market leading touch pad, metal cases, and more.  They are available with high specs in terms of processors, memory and storage as well, which makes them serious machines to use for things like virtual machines, compiling large programs, video editing, and the like.  

"Everyone" says the prices are high, but honestly that isn't even true for a mid to high range laptop.  Seriously, go try to buy a Lenovo or Dell with the same specs as a Mac, and you will find that it will often cost around the same or more.  You can get a cheaper PC, but it will usually be plastic, with a smaller touchpad, with slower wifi and older bluetooth, a less vibrant lower resolution screen, etc.  

The operating system combines Unix with ease of use, so that average users can use the computer and the operating system is supported by plenty of major software producers such as Adobe and Microsoft, etc.  Most importantly, it's not Windows.  Admittedly, Windows has gotten a bit better, and WSL2 is a great addition, but it is also something I would like to avoid.  

With the release of the M1, things have only gotten better, the machines are super, super fast, and the batteries last an obscenely long time.  Exactly what I want from a computer.  I have an M1 Macbook Pro, and it is absolutely fantastic, except....

1. It constantly displays the "You are running out of memory, which program would you like to terminate?" type dialog.  It has only 16GB of RAM, and apparently having multiple users logged in with tons of browser tabs and apps open makes it angry.  I am used to being able to do that because my other machine has 64GB of RAM.  Somehow my linux desktop with only 16gb of RAM also seems to cope much better than OS X.

2. It is also constantly displaying "You are running out of disk space" dialog.  This is because it has "Only" 256 GB of storage and somehow I filled that up in about a week (my other laptop has 4TB which took me a bit longer to fill up).  

#2 is easier to solve because I can transfer things to my QuaStation cluster to free up space, but it brings me to the thought of "I would like to buy an SSD and upgrade this thing" - but I can't.

It isn't possible to upgrade the RAM or SSD in any reasonably easy or safe way.  Don't get me wrong, the  MacBook Pro I bought has the same issue, which is why I maxed out the specs when I bought it.

In fact, when I upgraded from my Macbook Pro 15 inch to a MAcBook Pro 16 inch, I wasn't able to transfer the RAM or SSD over either.  the 15 inch has I think 64GB of RAM (at least 32), but I had to buy the RAM again - likewise with the SSD.

On the M1 the RAM is on the processor (basically), so there is somewhat of a valid reason for this, but the MAcBook pro 15 and 16 inch both use Intel i9 chips with separate RAM - it's just that they soldered it onto the motherboard.

The excuses given for this are "We need to do this to make the laptop thin and light weight", and "It improved reliability".  It it's just Apple either, it seems Microsoft and everyone else has been following this trend too in recent times.  With my old Thinkpad, the RAM and SSD  could be swapped out easily, but my new one, not so much.  The older Macbook Pros (f.e. 2011) has similar expandability.  

Upgrading the processor was something you could never do on most PC laptops to start with.  If you were lucky, you might be able to upgrade to a slightly higher clock speed or slightly better processor because they offered several models of the laptop, and had replacement boards available, but upgrading to a newer processor several years later was normally not part of the plan.

Another excuse often given was "Most users never upgrade anyway" - which I am sure is true, but still not a valid reason to lock them out from doing so.  

For example, I did upgrade my 2011 Macbook Pro - I maxed out the RAM and swapped out the HDD for an SSD.  I also upgraded the RAM and SSD in my old Thinkpad - in both cases this gave the machines new life and I was able to pass them onto others.  

I can give three examples where the soldered on nature of newer machines cased me headaches:

1. I had a friend with a 2nd model 13 inch MacBook Air.  The machine stopped booting, and I was able to discern from the error beeps that it was a RAM failure.  Since the RAM was part of the motherboard, there was no possibility to fix it sort of trying to unsolder RAM chips and replace them which wouldn't be nearly worth the effort.

2. I had one of the MacBook Air 11inch laptops, but when I managed to crack the screen, Apple wanted $800 to fix it.  I managed to buy an entire machine for $500 used and steal the screen for that.  (I later sold the remainder of the machine for $400, so the screen only cost me $100 and about an hour of time to swap out the display).  

3. I got my first generation MacBook Air refurbished and gave it to my brother, who promptly managed to crack the screen.  The quoted repair cost was much, much higher than the value of the machine.  

It occurs to me that although my M1 is basically a machine for light cafe use,  I can get a few more years of serious use from my MacBook Pro 16 inch, as it is still a fairly new machine, and was high spec to begin with - but I will never be able to upgrade it.  If something does break, it will likely cost an obscene amount to fix.  This got me started thinking seriously about buying a PC for my next machine - and then I discovered that most PCs are now built in a similar way.  

Then I found the Framework computer.  It's not for sale in Japan yet, but I ordered one and had it shipped to the US.  From there I will get it re-shipped to Japan.  Given that I will have to pay import tax, I opted for no RAM and no SSD, as I will buy those here in Japan.

I will probably start out with something like 32GB or RAM and a 1 TB SSD, but I can upgrade later to at least 64GB of RAM and a 4TB SSD.  Perhaps by that time, the SSD prices will have dropped - especially for the higher performance models.  

I will probably run Elementary OS, but I am evaluating Pop! OS and standard Ubuntu as well.  I like Evolution, but I have wound that it doesn't work with the Android software for Linux.  Without the Mac App store, I will want to be able to use Android apps so that I don't have to use browser apps for things like MS Excel and Google Docs.  I really think more effort nd attention should be given to integrating Android with Desktop linux.  

Perhaps even more interesting is that if all goes according to plan, I Framework will offer better processor mainboards in the future, which can also be swapped out.  

I wish this computer used something like the M1 instead of an Intel chipset, as for one thing the battery life will be quite a bit less, but some trade-offs may be worth it to have a machine that I can upgrade for the foreseeable future.  

Since the screen is also replaceable, it may be that they will offer an OLED or MiniLED version in the future, and other interesting upgrades are likely to arrive.  

In general, the Framework laptop has received very positive reviews, but I have seen two common criticisms leveled at it:

1. "That laptop is great and all, but they are a small company in a competitive market.  They'll probably fail and never release a new motherboard - it's better to wait and see".  Well, perhaps they will fail - but a responsible person who wants to see them succeed should not be sowing doubt.  What's more, if everyone decided to "Wait and see", that alone could cause them to fail.  The reason I am buying mine now instead of waiting until my Macbook Pro is another 5 years old is largely to show support.  (And, admittedly, to have a separate dedicated Linux laptop).

2. "Only geeks should buy this" - No! absolutely not.  If you have any power to recommend laptops at all, you should absolutely recommend the Framework, even to your mother or that friend that only uses their computer for Facebook.  Why?  Because, when they manage to break it, a new screen will cost $200 instead of $800.  Also, when they come back in 5 years saying to you "That laptop you recommended was great, but it's getting kind of long in tooth...", you can say "Actually, you can make it faster!"  By recommending Framework, you can help the company succeed while simultaneously helping your friends and the planet.