I recently completed the purchase of a Framework Laptop. I really like what this company represents as well as their product. The laptop is a remarkably slim package for a laptop that is fully repairable and represents what I believe to be the next evolution in computing, eco-friendly personal computers.
I purchased the DIY 12th Gen Intel version of this system. The box the laptop came in was fully recyclable (with the exception of a couple of the 3rd party modules wrapped in plastic). There is a single tool that is used to unscrew the bottom of the case, which detaches the body from the keyboard. After that, installing the components was really simple. Everything is labeled clearly so there was no confusion about where the components would go. Even the expansion ports on the sides of the laptop are removable.
I purchased this laptop and installed Ubuntu 22.04 on it. Ubuntu is one of the most user-friendly Linux distributions out there and since I don’t consider myself a Linux expert by any means, this is the distribution I went with. I also installed Oracle Virtualbox so that I could build out different virtual machines to use the different Linux distributions. I think this is a great setup as it allows me to build true playground VMs that I can mess around with and not wreck the host OS. Inside Virtualbox I installed another Ubuntu 22.04 system with Visual Studio Code and the extensions for Python, C++ and JavaScript. I’ve been coding on this platform now for a couple of months and it’s been really, really fun.
I’ve also done a few other things on here but these are really preliminary setups:
- I setup a distribution of Kali Linux in Virtualbox with another Metasploitable VM.
- I installed Docker Desktop and I’ve started playing around with containers as well as uploading some of my code to GitHub.
Again, these other items are very preliminary as I have enough to handle with coding and the certifications that I’m looking at.
While I love this setup, I do have a few minor criticisms of Framework. If you are considering purchasing, just keep these items in mind:
- Battery life is probably the worst that I’ve seen on this system. I would imagine I get around 2 hours battery life. I’ve looked for other batteries on Framework’s site but no luck.
- The headphone jack is on the left-side of the computer. I’m not sure if this is actually an annoyance or if it’s just me, but I’m really used to the headphone jack being on the right-side of the computer….just seems right.
- The fan on this thing can get really loud and the laptop seems to have a mind of its own when it comes to when it decides to turn it on.
Again, these are very minor grips. On the whole, I think this Framework laptop is the start of something special and I’m planning to make all my future purchases be these fully repairable systems.
Completed December 2022