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Framework proved repairable laptops can work, but almost nobody is willing to buy one (www.xda-developers.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 335 points 3 months ago* (57 children)

Almost nobody is willing to buy one

repairability enthusiasts have bought Framework laptops in the hundreds of thousands

Pick a lane there, XDA...

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  • [–] 124 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    They even mention how the point is to buy the whole laptop once and then upgrade or repair it, instead of buying an entirely new laptop. Of course they're selling fewer laptops than anyone making mediocre netbooks

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  • [+] 16 points 3 months ago (40 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 71 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (23 children)

    And I don't see why that is a problem. If a company is doing good thing and sustaining itself, I don't see why they will need to be the next dell, hp, or lenovo. That feels like the toxicity of "endless growth" in the capitalistic view of the world.

    Not to mention in most of the place I go to, these are the most popular laptops only behind macbooks. In many situations, they are even more popular than macbooks.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 months ago (22 children)

    I have never seen a Framework in the wild, however I applaud their approach, but even when taking repair costs in consideration, Frameworks are more expensive than simply upgrading to a newer laptop and using the old laptop for some other purpose. I can't imagine with the rampocalypse that they easily survive, but I hope they do, I wish other manufacturers would make repair a higher priority.

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  • [–] 14 points 3 months ago (10 children)

    My anecdotal experience - my Asus gaming laptop died about 6 months ago. with a lot of trouble shooting, I determined it was most likely the mobo. I decided to go with a framework, and was able to bring over my hard drive and ram, saving me like $400.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (9 children)

    You also likely don't need to reinstall/resetup everything, which is absolutely painful.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (8 children)

    Getting the framework driver's was painful. I needed to download them over wifi, but wifi wasn't working because it needed the driver. okay, download on another computer and install via USB, nope. USB drivers aren't working either. I ended up spotting my hard drive into my desktop, downloading the drivers that way, and then moving it back to the framework laptop to install.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago* (2 children)

    If you have a desktop with internet connection, maybe a USB stick would suffice?

    There is also USB tethering from a phone that could work.

    I am not defending framework. They should try to do better (maybe windows is the bottleneck? not sure). Just offering solutions to people who might encounter this problem later.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (3 children)

    I've literally never had a computer need drivers to make basic USB work in the past probably 20 years. I had a bleeding edge ai 350 framework right even when it came out. Linux was a little flaky with my sound but everything else worked. Same in Windows. Maybe I needed Wi-Fi drivers, don't recall, but I know USB worked without any. I'm really curious how you needed USB drivers of all things genuinely. I mean you installed the OS presumably from a thumb drive so how would that not work in the same os after installing? Lol.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    It may be a separate issue to drivers, because I have this other issue where after waking up from sleep, I have to either reboot or physically remove the USB port and plug it back in to make the USB work. I've disabled "allow windows to put this device to sleep" for every single USB titled thing in device manager, so I'm not sure what the issue is. I plan on installing a small linux partition at some point to play around and see if I like it.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    If you really moved the hard drive from one laptop to another without reinstalling the OS, that's probably going to cause issues. It'll "work" seemingly but it's gonna be messy like this. You're going to spend more time hunting weird shit than you would just doing a reinstall imo.

    I'd backup what you need to and start over or you're probably going to keep having strange issues.

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  • [–] 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

    I would like to offer a slightly different perspective: I believe framework is uniquely positioned to survive the ram apocalypse (at least respect to their scale).

    In the sense that, framework user can keep purchasing and upgrading components, like battery, screen, speaker, hinge, expansion card, without needing to worry about ram prices, and framework can profit from these component without needing to subsidize ram prices.

    That being said, as a smaller company, they certainly don't have the same amount of bargaining power on ram as most big players, and the launch of LPCAM2 is a bit risky, since that pervents people from purchasing new ram/board/laptops given the current ram prices.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

    Does a new generation mobo/chip combination generally still support the older generation of RAM?

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  • [–] 13 points 3 months ago (11 children)

    Why does everything need to cater to the average consumer? The average consumer is a fucking idiot, especially when it comes to technology. They don't need to sell to everyone, they just need to sell enough to keep their company running and their people paid.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (9 children)

    I feel this way about spicy things. Everything "hot" is just hot to the average schmuck from the Midwest. Anything spicier than that gets dumbed down to become that (like taco bell Diablo sauce) or becomes hard to find.

    I really enjoyed when that Buldak 2x spicy chicken raman "challenge" became a thing, because that's some great tasting raman and more in line with the normal amount of spicy I like to eat. Now I'm back to having to just order it online again.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (3 children)

    As an average schmuck from the Midwest. I'm sorry our weak tastebuds are fucking up your options.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (2 children)

    It's not your fault. The taco bell one really tucked me off, though. The first summer it was out was a limited time thing. It was actually a bit spicy. A lot more spicy than anything else a fast food chain had.

    But then when they brought it back permanently it wasn't half as spicy as it was. Taco Bell has like 5 fucking bland ass sauces now, and three of them taste about the same. What's the damned point? FU taco bell. You could have left me with at least one option besides all your ketchup with tobacco sauce mixed in. No wonder I've only been there like 4 times in the last year.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, I remember thinking the diablo one was pretty hot for my taste but now it's the one I go with. I didn't know they changed it, I thought I might have developed some tolerance lol. It's gotten way too expensive for what it is anyway.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Yeah. They buy cheaper stuff, and charge more for it. I can't stand the taste of their trash burrito shells they went to. Then, they charge twice as much for just a bean burrito and give you half the filling, even though it's just super cheap refried beans.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (2 children)

    In my part of the world 2x is weak, the challenges were doing 3x 😂

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago (7 children)

    Well, what is hundreds of thousands as a percentage of the overall market? Like if they sold hundreds of thousands of grains of rice, that's "almost nothing" compared to the rest of the rice that got sold

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    "Most of the market" includes the segments of commercial support contracts for office laptops which Framework doesn't even target. Then you have the next biggest which is "go to Costco/Walmary/bestbuy and get what is on sale. So Framework simply cannot be a majority brand without those.

    Among the remaining segment, e.g., developers that get to shop around and buy whatever they want? Its fairly popular.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    I don’t understand what you mean in your first point. There are clear pathways for companies and schools to buy in bulk on the framework website. Not saying that FW is successful in that way but it is there.

    I agree on your second point but would tie it to marketing. Having your laptop on sale at Costco is a marketing strategy, which for better or for worse, FW doesn’t do right now (and probably doesn’t have the ability to do)

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago* (4 children)

    In no context is hundreds of thousands of people "almost nobody".

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I mean, Dell is the #3 in laptop sales and sells roughly 30 million laptops per year. So yeah, Framework is roughly 0% of market share. I know this is a very tech enthusiast heavy website, but there are certain realities that people should face. It's like saying Nothing Phone is going to remotely compete with Apple. It's not a fair or valid comparison in the first place. I think a more fair comparison for Framework (beyond what they are hoping to achieve) would be with a small system builder like System 76, XMG or the likes.

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