A couple of things to talk about today.

First, the new 16" Framework laptop seems awesome. It includes room for upgradeable discrete graphics and is configurable so you can include or remove a 10-key keypad and recenter your main keyboard if it's removed. The Framework really is about as close to the "let me build my laptop like I want" dream folks like me have had for a while.

And they have already delivered. I bagged the old 13" Framework laptop, refurb, for about $600, that comes without OS, SSD, RAM, WiFi card, or a power supply. I pulled those pieces out of the junk drawer from upgrades of other laptops and installed Ubuntu. See? It really is like building your own brandless DIY tower.

My first gen refurb has a nice screen, decent keyboard, plenty fast with the slowest 11th gen Intel i5 Framework has ever sold, but what was most important to me is that I might be able to replace the battery in a few years when it finally dies. Amazingly, starting yesterday, they're selling a better battery with over 10% more power for my laptop. And not that I need to upgrade, but all the new processors fit in my box too (13th gen Intel and AMD 7040s) two years after its release.

Small, though not the smallest. High quality components, but not the best (not a ThinkPad keyboard or a MacBook trackpad by any stretch). Not the best battery life, but much better than my gaming laptop's. Clearly privileges repairability above all else, but still does a good job everywhere else -- which is why I'm so impressed by the 16"'s plans for graphics. If you need that much GPU power, and they pull things off as well as they have so far, you should start saving some real dough when you upgrade.

What's to hate? The stupid user-configurable ports. They cost $9-19 a piece for USB or HDMI ports. There's a nice group of four refurb expansion cards for $29, but they're $9 to ship. Robbery, I tell you.

I get why -- in theory -- "pick your ports" is a neat idea, but get this: The 13" Framework is just a four-USB-C-port box. The expansion cards ultimately plug into USB-C ports. Though you can go directly to the USB-C ports on the motherboard without expansion cards, the "raw" ports are difficult to reach without the cards installed, and I've got one port on my motherboard that's a little loose already. I wonder if they're rated for the same number of usages.

Overheard [in my head]:

Look, you have to have at least one USB-C for power. Why not just put in two permanent USB-C ports on every laptop and save $18?

"Because then you lose your choice for one slot. Maybe I only want one USB-C like [the old, super-slim 12"] MacBook"

Oh sheesh, whatever, fine. Why not one USB-C port that's easy to reach built-in?

"Well, what if someone wants power on the other side of the laptop and two different ports on that side?"

Sheesh.

That said, their "courage" parody showing they'll allow you to install SIX HEADPHONE PORTS on one 16" laptop is hilarious.

If you care about repairability and upgradability at all -- no, if you've complained about soldered on RAM and SSDs on MacBooks ­even once! -- you owe it to Framework to make it your next laptop. Refurbs like mine have dropped to $599... not a great price for BYO[RAM, SSD, WiFi, and power supply], as you can often buy a completely new gaming laptop with all those things for less (here's today's under $600 example).

But find me another well-made laptop with decent battery life that allows you to swap out an internal battery for $60.

Second, let me remind myself how to create and apply git patches.

From stackoverflow.com:

To produce patch for several commits, you should use format-patch git command, e.g.

git format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2

...

Then in another repository apply the patch by am git command, e.g.

git am -3 -k file.patch

If things go completely sideways and you're, like me, applying a patch from a thumb drive where there's no internet and no great Plan B, you can apply a patch file by hand even if git gives you the "It does not apply to blobs recorded in its index." error.

I really like how git anticipates and supports completely disconnected edits. It makes it really easy to grab a few files, any laptop, take off somewhere to get some work done, and know you can export that work back wherever you started.

Labels: framework, git

The joys of building your own computer

I've been interested in the Framework laptop for a while. I used to build towers, and my favorite part was always reusing parts. The lifecycle was always similar, and, like a Mobius strip, after you built the first one, you could enter the cycle at most any step.

1. Learn new socket types.
2. Buy a motherboard and processor.
3. Reuse your old tower and, hopefully, PSU
4. Reuse your old hard drive (and optical drive!)
5. See if you can reuse RAM from last time.
6. See if integrated graphics are better than recycling your old video card.

If you look closely, you could often, ignoring gaming for now, have a "new" tower for the price of a motherboard and processor because the parts were interchangeable. Increasingly, you'd get a boost for gaming too -- integrated graphics seemed to outpace reasonably priced previous-gen GPUs the last few I bought.

And you could push other upgrades until you felt like paying for them. You could, indpendently of the rest of the box...

1. Upgrade your video card.
2. Add RAM.
3. Upgrade your PSU.

And those investments usually meant your next "mobo & proc" refresh would be that much better.

I do as much of this as I can with laptops. I've upgraded optical drives, RAM, SSDs, even an output port for my PowerBook 150.

But things are getting progressively worse. I was able to upgrade the SSD on my last MacBook Air, but I can upgrade nothing on my M1 now. My latest Thinkpad is an E series in part because the top-of-the-line T had one stick of soldered RAM.

Framework laptop: The price of entry is too darned high

Then I ran into the Framework laptop, which is, minus that the CPU is soldered permanently to the motherboard and there's no dedicated GPU, nearly as modular as those towers I built.

It's cool, but the price of entry is insane, unfortunately. The current price of entry is $1049 with an i5-1240P.

You can DIY for $819... sorta. The DIY model...

• Doesn't have Windows ($139)
• Doesn't have memory ($40 to match prebuilt)
• Doesn't have an SSD ($59 for closest match to prebuilt)
• Doesn't have a power adapter (doesn't seem to come with prebuilt either?)
• No "expansion cards" ($36 to match prebuild)

That means to get the same as the prebuilt you've spending $1093. That's $44 more for the privilege of building it yourself.

Worse, there are no creative ways to get in cheaper.

• There's a refurbished previous gen for $599 listed, but it hasn't been in stock since I've been keeping track.
• There's a refurb prev gen with i7-1165G7 for $799 -- but for $20 you get a much better box: MUCH faster processor, stronger backplate, and all new components. That's a deal you gotta take.
• You can put together the parts separately from the marketplace for a "true DIY", but ordering the parts yourself still runs $882 even with a prev gen i5. Again, horrible price vs. new DIY.
  • Insult to injury, you can't get the trackpad or battery this way yet.

Ugh.

I did check for people selling old mainboards, as the previous gen i5 is still an overpriced $350 on Framework's site, but didn't turn up anything. Makes me wonder how many folks have purchased and how many of those have upgraded. I would've expected some supply of used mainboards. If you could bag one for $200, maybe we're making some progress, but there's nothing there or on eBay.

Long-term isn't much better

But now compare your next upgrade. Can we board the tower's Mobius strip of infinite upgrades?

Unfortunately the cheapest 12th gen Intel chip mainboard from Framework is $449. Looks like we've got an issue.

Compare that price to new gaming laptop deals, which aren't perfect dev laptops, but aren't bad either. Here are two deals currently live from SlickDeals:

• $600 Dell i5-12500H, 8 RAM, 256 SSD
• $550 Gigabyte i5-11400H, 8 RAM, 512 SSD

And both of those have real graphics options. That's bad in that it usually means, as they're gaming laptops, you can't charge via USB-C, the batteries aren't great, maybe the webcam is crap, and the keyboards aren't top notch.

But each of those are hundreds less than a Framework without memory or an SSD. That is, if we pretend that our second round of owning a Framework only runs $450, we're just barely breaking even with buying two gaming laptops. We have to go two rounds of upgrades just to argue we've come out ahead.

That doesn't sound horrible, but at least the extra gaming laptops would give us (potentially) two more RAM sticks and SSDs to reuse down the line -- and/or a used computer we could resell.

Framework is great, reduces ewaste, and would be cheaper to repair if something died, but the Framework simply is not a cost-effective option for your latest-gen laptop, even looking long-term.

Ugh. I want to encourage what they're doing, and feel like I oughta put my money where my mouth is, but, to date, I just can't.

Ways that I'm trying to talk myself into getting one anyway:

1. Better webcam
2. Better keyboard (right?)
3. Better Linux support
4. Easily replaceable battery once it dies

That's all I got. So far, still not enough. The Framework laptop tax is too high.

Labels: business, expansion, framework, laptop