If there was enough demand for those keyboard nipples, certainly someone could make a keyboard to slot in.
Something some thinkpad users value a lot is the trackpoint. I’m seriously considering breaking a 4 thinkpad (3 X2x0, one X1 carbon) spree with a 13" framework but not having trackpoint is a big issue for me. I’m using the fact my X1 is still fast enough for my use to wait and hope for framework to get a trackpoint. There’re more people in the same boat in framework’s forums.
If you like anonymity, then the Retro thinkpads should still be the best as they are numerous and hardware profiling is useless (if you are a TAILS or tor user – “Windows” everywhere!).
Also, check out the “hardware compatibility list” from Qubes OS (they’ve got an endorsement from Snowden right on their homepage). The i5 and i7 Intel CPUs virtualize and are very well understood by people that work with Xen. Notice how Intel just crashed with the latest generation CPU lines. Just because it is brand new, doesn’t mean it is highest security and reliability. (For example, nuclear silos sometimes still use floppies and are air gap compartmentalized with people in the loop. Might not be best for all the nukes to be on skynet and latest videogame capable. Depends on what you are doing for what is “best.”)
Modularity on Framework is pretty cool though.
Such a bummer we have to worry about hardware profiling. Seemingly a nearly intractable problem.
Actually, I have never received a proof that there actually is such a thing (all mass produced looks like every other mass produced) besides electromagnetic properties https://www.whonix.org/wiki/MAC_Address#Burner_Wi-Fi_USB_Sticks but there is, unfortunately, “clock” which is the totalitarian World Order.
Ok fuck it.
Tell me why i shouldn’t go for this as my next daily driver after one MBP after another for over 15 yrs. I’m serious.
Wow thats a both pricey and monstrous specs (IDK about the proc but seems like a beast too!).
What’s the 3 x 1TB cards? SSDs ??
Looks like they’re the ones for the expansion slots, which come iirc in 250gb and 1tb options. The ports are modular, and you could forgo one (or three) say USB ports and replace them with memory (or ethernet, SD, MicroSD, HDMI, etc.) And swap them around at will.
Idk what is inside the cards, but there are files out there to 3Dprint a shell for one that can take the guts from a USB thumb drive to act as the same thing, which I’m gonna print soon enough.
You are doing it wrong. Framework is easy to DIY, use that option and bring your own memory and storage. Only get what you need right now, you can always upgrade later when prices come down. Instead of the included charger, get a high quality third party 65W GAN charger. All that gets the cost down to about 1600 with barely any downside. Don’t buy a modular device without using the modularity to your advantage.
You shouldn’t buy a framework because you will be robbing yourself of the joy of a brand new laptop every 3 to 5 years because the battery is not replaceable or the WiFi chip went bad and it is soldered in. Think of all the innovations you will be missing out on because you are just swapping parts out like some kind of animal.
Do you think this is some kind of investment or something? Computers are just disposable things that everyone can afford. Why bother fixing things? I just have my butler go grab me a new one whenever I accidentally drop it in the pool while browsing on my floating inflatable chair.
lol. Look at the current state and trend of tech and tell me with a straight face that it’s you who will be getting the innovation. What amazing feature was introduced in the last 10 years you couldn’t live without? How much garbage was introduced just because companies could get away with it because the average consumers PC is powerful enough to not notice the spyware/adware/bloatware running in the background?
Yes, buy the new thing. Consume. Trash. Buy new.
I don’t even value repairability to save a buck long term. I value it because I know I can get my system up and running again ways before I finish setup on a new device.
There have been a ton of innovative hardware and software features. Such as ADs in the start menu, firmware locked parts to the system, always on facial recognition cameras, soldered on ssd storage, windows recall, AI processors, planned obsolescence.
So much innovation in such little time.
I work with typescript on a very large codebase. If I have the code editor open and the run a typecheck at the same time, plus some electron apps and Spotify playing, it can easily fill my 32GB of ram, so 64 would be the next cool number to not have to worry about ram ever.
Fuck Electron. I hate that current trend. I like my long battery life and being able to run more than 3 applications on my MacBook Pro.
I will always use the example of how I subscribed to Spotify for a couple months back in 2015 and realized that the app constantly sat at the top of the Using Significant Energy list on my mac and was the reason the fan was so loud. I switched away to Apple Music for that sole reason. iTunes by comparison was very power efficient. It plays music for gods sake. How can you fail at playing music that badly.
Futureproofing it for the next N years? Playing some mad games? Honestly no idea I just thought to take the current top tier benchmark and one-up it.
Edit: on reflection I generally max out my MBPs out of habit to get the longest shelf life possible. Perhaps it’s just habit.
Edit2: if it helps I tend to get a new laptop every 5/6 years. The aim here would be to happily bespoke the hell out of a system and get more than 6 years out of it.
This was me, basically.
I had a Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 10 that, by the books, should have been a beast with good Linux support to boot. I tried for so long, but ended up replacing it with a Framework.
The thermal management on the Thinkpad is awful, under Linux at least but by all accounts attributable to the EC itself. Running the most basic workload would cause the CPU to spike for about one second before it would throttle all cores back to 400 MHz where they would stay locked for the next few minutes despite the CPU temps remaining at 50-60°C the entire time.
And it wasn’t just me, numerous reports from all over. This made the system nearly useless. I shared pages of diagnostic info with them and they just seemed completely uninterested in trying to do anything about it.
Spec’d out equivalently, the Framework 16 (without GPU) is no more expensive than the X1 Carbon but with even better Linux support and unsurpassable upgradeability. I’m glad my company was onboard for me to switch.