Framework
I work in the tech industry as a writer and developer. My preferred form factor for the last 20+ years has been a laptop, a necessity because I’ve needed mobility over the raw power and expandability of a desktop.
My current machine is Apple’s MacBook Pro, the very last Intel model before Apple started producing their M1 line product line. Put simply, the MacBook Pro affords me the right balance of weight, features, and performance with the operating system I like best, macOS.
Laptops have always represented a compromise. For their mobility, we sacrifice performance, expandability, and repairability. Thanks to Intel’s stagnation, and Thunderbolt/USB-C performance and expansion is less of an issue. Providing you have enough RAM, and a docking station with plenty of ports, your laptop can shift modes and become a very capable desktop replacement.
But repairability remains problematic. Or, at least, that’s what we’ve been encouraged to believe, by an industry that’s spent the last decade turning laptops into proprietary sealed units.
Apple is at the forefront of this trend. My MacBook Pro has zero user-serviceable or upgradable parts, and Apple uses adhesives and firmware to prevent it from being serviced by anyone besides an Apple certified technician. It’s put Apple at loggerheads with the growing right to repair movement, and those who argue against the disposal, consumerist culture that’s fuelling climate change and resource depletion.
Enter Frame.work, a laptop designed to be repairable by its users, while also being thin, light and aesthetically pleasing. The Framework laptop is modular in design, and can be upgraded, customised and repaired without “sacrificing performance, quality, or style”.
To say it’s making waves among tech journalists is an understatement. Moreover, popular YouTuber Linus Sebastian, loves the product and what it stands for so much, he’s invested more than 220 thousand US dollars in the company.
Like Linus, I really hope Framework succeeds, both in building a successful and viable product, and hopefully gaining enough traction in the industry to reverse the trend spearheaded by Apple.
However, I won’t buy one for several practical reasons. Set aside the issue of it not running macOS (which isn’t Framework’s fault), and my primary reasons is that I’m in Australia, and I doubt Framework will ever service our market. In this respect, they are like System76 or Entroware — a boutique manufacturer catering to a specific need, in a specific market. Even if they eventually ship to my country, I’ll always be a second-class citizen, at the mercy of international shipping, questionable warranties, non-existent support and fluctuating exchange rates. I just can’t see Framework expanding outside North America to give me a first-class experience like Apple and Dell can.
If I’m honest, support and convenience matters more to me these days than the ability to open up my computer and repair it. Sure, when I was a student I had more time than money, but 20 years into my career, and time is my most precious commodity. I use my computer to earn my living, and if it breaks down, it’s far more convenient to hand it over to Apple, or buy a new one. This is the same reason I service my Honda at the Honda dealership I bought it from. I don’t go to the generic mechanic down the road, or god forbid, open the bonnet and attempt to change a spark plug or oil in that plastic shrouded space-age looking engine.
This reality permeates businesses and their IT departments throughout the world, who buy machines rather than repair them because it’s cheaper and more convenient. Time is money, and if Apple, Dell or any other OEM offers products and services that meet this equation, they will continue to profit and shape the industry.
Framework is a laptop for tinkerers, enthusiasts or those who really do factor in the environment and climate change in their purchase. And for that reason, I really love the idea of the Framework laptop, and I truly agree with the right to repair movement. But, given the choice and considering my needs a developer and options as a consumer, when I buy my next laptop, it will be another MacBook Pro.
