Originally written .
The Framework laptops have some pretty great features that would probably make it my ideal non-Mac laptop if I were to buy a new one in the near future:
I could nitpick and say I'd prefer a better screen option, or some kind of Magsafe option (although I think that's locked behind a patent or something), or that 4 ports is not quite enough, that the speakers could probably be better, and while all that would be true, I'm not going look a gift horse in the mouth. It's damn near perfect as far as I can tell, within reasonable parameters that this flawed world allows for. For crying out loud, it's even got a fingerprint reader, with working Linux drivers! The screen's decent enough. I can deal with USB-C for charging; it's a huge improvement over older chargers for me, and I've got a USB-C charger I'm very happy with already. The need for more than 4 ports is very rare, and the swappable modules alliviate the main problem of just not having an HDMI or ethernet port when you really need it. And if you know you're going to need to use 5+ ports simultaneously, it's probably time to get a hub or something and put all the low-bandwidth devices on that port, and leave the rest for all the important stuff. Speakers don't need to be great for me on a laptop, as long as they are competent. If I need great audio, I'll get out my headset. There's nothing the Framework doesn't do that isn't fixed by a very reasonable workaround; there's nothing fundamentally broken from what I can tell, which is something many other laptop manufacturers apparently struggle to achieve.
I'd still be using a mid-2012 Macbook Pro as a daily driver laptop if it weren't for the fact that the battery in it started to bulge and that I can't get a new battery from a source I trust; see Hardware can last a long time. The battery in that machine wasn't even hard to replace. It was just a matter of having a spare on hand that made it unviable for me to continue using it. If I get a Framework, I could probably keep using it until the end of time, or at least until some critical functionality gets removed from the Linux kernel, which is going to take a long, long time, if it even ever happens, since the only thing in that laptop that's a consumable, is the battery. As long as the battery is easily replaceable, which it will always be, and Framework continues to sell compatible batteries, which I don't expect them to not do in anything approaching the near future, I'll probably be left with an end-game laptop, or at least a very solid 10-year+ laptop. And even if I do trip on a rock, spill a drink, or get unlucky with an SSD, any potential problems are also very likely to be fixable in the same way.
The only things I'm missing are 1.) A Norwegian keyboard option, although I could probably deal with having a Danish one, as they're not very different, or just be That Guy™ with a blank layout (this is probably also going to be a thing if they ever do release their laptops over here), and B.) Them being willing to ship to me. Even if I were to get a hold of one sneakily, I'd run into this same problem the instant I need a replacement part, so this isn't really a valid option for me until I know I can reliably get parts and support here without going through back-channels.
I know Norway isn't part of the EU. I don't like it either, but come on, there's got to be a market here, hasn't there? I beg of you, just allow me to give you my money in exchange for your products. That's how business works, right? This isn't even a matter of price for me. The Framework laptops can be 25+% more expensive than they are in Sweden, where they are available, and I'd still buy one when I need a laptop replacement, since my prefered model would still be cheaper than my prefered model of Macbook. And I seriously doubt any price difference is even going to be that big, although I do expect there to be some. You have to actively fuck up a launch here, or have something else go catastrophically wrong, for my position to change on this matter. All you need to do is actually sell it here.
The Framework is a really easy recommendation for anyone vaguely enthused about computers and are thus willing to spend some money on a laptop to get a decent experience. Outside of the Framework, the only decent laptop experiences are Macbooks, Thinkpads, and maybe some really high-end stuff from Dell and the like, and for those latter ones, you generally still have to contend with Windows, which is an increasingly hostile experience. Thinkpads at least have the decency to have decent Linux support, but even that product line is trending downwards with cheaper parts and a declining ability to replace or otherwise repair them. Heck, I can probably convince the less computer-enthused people to try it out, since the price of the older models, once on sale, isn't even that bad if you get a lower-end model. These people don't need stupidly fast processors, so as long as the rest of the laptop is good, which it very much is. I can't imagine they'd be anything other than happy with a Framework, and if something does go wrong, it's probably an easy fix, and not a 'that sucks, time to buy a new one' moment, which will hopefully save them some money, and thus sell them even more on Framework when the time does come for an upgrade, or maybe they'll even recommend them to their friends.
Since Frameworks provide such a good experience, they'd be a fantastic recommendation for me to give to other people, but I can't recommend a computer to people which they can't buy. It's not even like I myself need a new laptop right now; I'm very happy with my 14-inch M1 Macbook Pro for what I need a laptop to do, but without the Framework as a possible option, I have very few options outside of Apple for myself if something does happen, or to recommend to other people without putting an asterisk next to damn near every model number I could reasonably recommend.
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