No interest in this exactly, but I am interested in the idea that third parties are now targeting the Framework form factor explicitly to sell upgrades/replacements outside of the Framework marketplace.
Yeah, there’s a lot of critiques of the product/packaging/etc, but this feels like huge validation of the Framework model - this is an unrelated 3rd party looking to get a chip in consumer hands who decided to use the FW chassis. That’s Exactly what we all were hoping for when Framework first launched.
Its about time, I hope System76 comes up with their own version of the Framework laptop, because I would love to buy a laptop where I can swap out all internals, motherboard etc. but I really also want to work with System76 because I love what they are doing with POP_OS! (though I prefer arch these days, I can still use their Desktop environment etc) and love that they make Linux hardware specifically.
We have needed a "Jeep of Laptops" for a while, maybe someone needs to spec out a fully open source design that any manufacturer can target.
Honestly a Framework+System76 merger would make a lot of sense. System76 cares about the software but uses whitelabeled hardware. Framework has done excellent hardware engineering but doesn't care much about the software.
I don't know that it's fair to say Framework don't care much about the software. Their oldest devices are still getting firmware updates. At any rate, Pop!_OS runs very well on Framework Laptops (though I use Arch + Hyprland, w/ Windows on their storage expansion card).
That's a bit of a hot take considering all the donations they've been making to OSS projects. Sure, maybe they're not making Yet Another Distro but they're donating to and upstreamimg patches to things that everyone (including PopOS) uses.
To me, that's far from not caring about the software. Especially when you compare to other vendors like Pine.
To be clear, this wasn't an attempt at a diss on Framework. They're what my recommended laptop has been for the past ~3 years (and would be what I got if I hadn't gotten my most recent laptop before frameworks were widely available).
What I probably should have said is that System76 takes open software ridiculously seriously in the same way that Framework takes open hardware ridiculously seriously. On the scale of Linux laptops, Framework is on par with Dell and Lenovo (the best of the big OEMs) in terms of upstreaming patches etc.
System76 OTOH is completely crazy. They've put Coreboot on their laptops, built their own DE because they got tired of Ubuntu not shipping proper nvidia drivers, etc.
"Like the Pi 4, I think this system is the first RISC-V desktop environment that isn't painful to use, just inconvenient. Actions still have delays, but the delays are more reasonable, and don't make me constantly question if the computer's frozen."
also some really odd choices by Eswin for the eic7702x, which is essentially 2 p550 chips glued together.
It should be possible to make a dumb version of such a keyboard wired the same as the stock one, just with the keys moved around. It would need some OS configuration to be truly useful, though.
Similar to a sibling comment, and perhaps not really applicable (since this isn't a company making something people can buy...), but the MNT Reform is amenable to fitting a custom/ergonomic keyboard also (I hadn't seen the Framework in the sibling comment, it looks very cool!).
I don't know how to link to it directly, but midway down this article there's a picture and some more links of an MNT Reform (apparently completely home-built) with a very cool, "thumb-centric", column staggered ergo keyboard:
I actually like short travel very light linear switches, mechanical or not.
I don’t like row stagger and non-split keyboards, for ergonomic reasons. That’s definitely a niche preference, but if anyone would cater to it you’d expect it to be Framework or similar.
You're right that Framework is exactly where I would expect flexibility on this: I mean, just looking at their landing page - you see a laptop without the keyboard and ports. Framework offers 176 (!) kinds of "keyboards":
(Answer: it's basically just keyboard covers, and the many options are due to variations of colors and languages. But I would take a hot pink / toxic green keyboard with ancient tibetan labels if the keys were non-chicklet, with decent travel, sizes, and feedback. 7 rows if possible.)
Overhead of small volume manufacturing. If they make all those variations and intend to continue existing as a company that makes money selling things, it would have to be at a price where no one's going to buy one. But if I start an Etsy store selling one-offs at $399 each, people can grumble about my price, but it's not on Framework.
Exactly. This is exactly we get in return for compromising on quality and price with framework. Other tech is cheaper because of planned obsolescence or lock in. Im glad to pay more money to have this freedom
The Legion Go is basically that with some joycons and a screen. I keep mine in my entertainment center when I'm not using it handheld, and play plastic instrument games on the big screen.
Looks like this would be an easy entry point to a DIY Steam Machine that takes up ~no space under your TV.
It's not standard mini-itx. Since the physical form factors for their laptop boards are published publicly and are somewhat stable, are "desktop" cases for them.
This board uses the CIX CP8180 SoC, which has worse performance and significantly worse efficiency than even Apple's M1 chip. See Jeff Geerling's review of a desktop with this SoC: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/minisforum-stuffs-ent... If you need an ARM Linux laptop, it's probably a better choice to get a used M1 or M2 MacBook Pro and put Fedora Asahi on it.
It does have graphics acceleration and you can even play AAA titles with fex [1] since last year. But many bells and whistles still don't work --- for example, the video decoding hardware, proper sleep, etc.
Anyway, I've been using it on my Macbook Air M2 and it works fine for my use case [3]. Pretty smooth.
From 2017-2023 I had Thinkpads and some Acer which was well supported by Linux and sleep was the worse part. On numerous occasions across different devices I'd put the laptop to sleep, put it in my bag, and pull it out in a coffee shop to find it was on and now the battery is down to 50%. Why is sleep so hard?
Well it's being discussed on here in most linux laptops thread.
On x86 it's because linux relies on the acpi tables which vendors don't bother to do properly.
On Apple ARM hardware/linux it's because Apple don't bother releasing any docs.
On other ARM SoCs... not sure. In theory every vendor wants volume orders for phones so they should be able to sleep properly?
It's sad if you're an Apple hardware + software slave and used to just closing the lid on your laptop and having it basically lose no battery for days, especially since ARM.
Maybe, but it works quite well for me, so to each their own! :)
Can't seem to get DP Alt Mode to work on my used 2021 M1 Pro though, even though it's listed as supported with an asterisk, maybe someone here has managed it?
(Also, if you're buying used and wiping MacOS are you truly giving Apple a dime? I guess it's a matter of perspective.)
Don't give Apple a dime, buy second-hand Apple hardware. Asahi can make a lot of sense on a Mac Mini, where proper sleep is not that important, but which could be an excellent small build server or a local ML inference box, for rather moderate money.
Yeah, or if you don't mind something with performance this low, the RK3588 has much better kernel support (I have a couple here) and there's some companies offering laptop format for those now.
But as much as I love the RK3588 it's very much in the "low perf utility SBC" world than "good performing general PC". I use my two boards for NAS, Plex, Forgejo CI builders, etc.
I do recall that Jeff Geerling I think had some followup with that board that perhaps there could be firmware changes that improve the power efficiency later maybe?
Is _everything_ working? Last time I put Linux on a x86_64 Air Book I was given for free, everything was working _except_ resume from suspend would crash and reboot the system, and from the reading on it, it seems it is a know issue due to T4 security chip or something. Made me believe that if older chips doesn't yet work, the newer ones probably have more caveats. Or am I wrong?
Generally I'm reluctant investing in Linux on a hardware from company more or less hostile to it, but I also don't have any need for ARM laptop, and I'm happy with my Framework.
I wouldn't say the problem is hostility. It's complete non-interest. Apple wisely allowed us to load a non-chain-of-trust OS while maintaining the chain of trust in macOS, which is an incredible advancement still unmatched by other manufacturers.
And that's it. They have done zero work to accommodate Linux. At all. Perhaps if Microsoft ever figures out that NT used to run on more than one arch, Apple will revive Boot Camp for Windows and deem it useful to include Linux this time?
> Apple will revive Boot Camp for Windows and deem it useful to include Linux this time?
If Apple wanted to, they could already do that right now. Windows runs on arm just fine. Heck, windows on Arm in a parallels VM runs better on my macbook pro than it does natively on an x86 laptop.
If Apple would make some drivers, even just for Windows, I bet they'd sell more macs. But it would seem Apple either calculated that ecosystem/services lock-in is way more important to them than a potential boost in hardware sales for alternative OSes, or they are really reluctant to make drivers for Apple Silicon available elsewhere out of fear it'll expose some trade secrets, which they didn't have to worry about when they used intel.
> If Apple would make some drivers, even just for Windows, I bet they'd sell more macs.
The incremental bump in sales would be very small.
Even when Apple did provide bootcamp drivers to run Windows on old laptops, very few people used it as their daily driver for a Windows computer. I'm sure Apple has a better estimate of the market for people who bought Macs to use with alternative OSes back when they supported it, but they've calculated that it's not worth the effort.
You can buy it from the Microsoft Store inside of windows once its installed. That's how it works with parallels, or any other Windows on Arm device (say, for upgrading from Home to Pro).
> Apple wisely allowed us to load a non-chain-of-trust OS
> an incredible advancement still unmatched by other manufacturers
Sheesh, don't forget to zip up Tim's pants once you're done. I hope other manufacturers don't follow Apple in forcing proprietary bootloaders. Open alternatives like Clover and OpenCore are fully viable for booting macOS.
The Macbook M2 Air running Asahi Linux is easily my favorite Linux laptop ever, far superior to any Thinkpad or Dell XPS I've owned, imo. I think things like Thunderbolt and some DisplayPort features are missing, but I have never needed this as it is purely a laptop for me. But it has everything else I could want: suspend/sleep, proper frequency scaling, great GPU drivers, USB/wifi/bluetooth, speakers, brightness/keyboard settings, etc. The webcam works I think but I haven't tried it. The battery life is great, though macOS is still quite a ways ahead in that department.
> early tests show that the SoC already draws about 16 watts at idle
Ooof. I feel like power efficiency would be the main reason I'd take the plunge and switch from x86_64 to arm64, given that there would be difficulties and trade offs software-wise to do so.
My 13th-gen Intel board in my Framework 13 sits at around 11W semi-idle (Firefox constantly burning 35% of one core for reasons that are my fault). And this is with Linux, where power management isn't always the best.
Regardless, I'm happy to see something like this. It might not be something I want today, but it's a step in the right direction.
It's either a firmware or soc thing, hoping they can fix it without having to spin a new chip. O6 owners keep bringing it up, but personally I don't care since in my case it's lower than the hardware it's replacing.
Correct, it's not sold by Framework, but is a replacement mainboard sold by a 3rd party. I think that is one of the big appeals of a modular laptop like Framework, though. You can create an ecosystem around it, customize, and not be locked in to just what the primary manufacturer makes.
I don't have much faith in Arm Linux. Tuxedo gave up.
Cheap Windows Arm laptops are flooding the market, if someone can pick ONE laptop to support they could easily buy them on sale , refurbished them with Linux and make a profit.
Looks likes their are some challenges with doing this.
I was about to comment to say that unless Valve is prepared to invest significant effort into an x86 -> ARM translation layer that's not going to happen but a quick search for "linux x86 to arm translation" led me to an XDA article[1] proving me wrong. The recently announced Steam Frame runs on ARM and can run x86 games directly using using something called FEX.
Now we just need to be as good as (or better than) Apple's Rosetta.
Apple Silicon actually has microarchitectural quirks implementing certain x86-isms in hardware for Rosetta 2 to use. I doubt any other ARM SoC would do such a thing, so I doubt third-party translation will ever get quite as efficient.
They are. You're mad that Valve isn't militantly enforcing Linux-native games, which is nonsense. The OG Steam Machine did that and was DOA.
Thousands of game studios are gone now, and supporting their software is important legacy work. You don't have to appreciate that, but I do. I do not give the faintest fuck about the opportunity cost you bemoan towards native UNIX games when I do this. That's your problem, not mine.
I have seen VR headsets trying to break any significant market share since 1994, they have never been anything other than a niche, with customers having too much money to throw around.
They probably gave up on their Snapdragon X efforts as Snapdragon X2 Elite was nipping at their heels and they'd have a redundant device by the time their efforts came to market.
> I don't have much faith in Arm Linux. Tuxedo gave up.
I was also slowly loosing hope, although I do still run some NixOS ARM Raspberry PIs. But with the recent Valve backing, I'm back on the train again, and eagerly awaiting the slow but steady improvements, and figuring out where I can contribute back.
Not really. The drivers are not upstream, so it only works well on specially made Ubuntu spins that carry out of tree patches and random binary blobs. It is really still quite a mess at the moment.
Integration, testing, and support are all expensive. Right or wrong, that's a reason why if a laptop "just works" (like a Mac, Windows Thinkpad, or a Chromebook), it probably has proprietary binaries.
Also, if you aren't paying for the OS (via the hardware it's coupled with), you can't expect the OS to have the benefits of tight hardware integration.
Even Framework laptops use proprietary boot firmware, and they've been pretty clear that they only provide support for Ubuntu and Fedora, not the alphabet soup of other Linux desktop distros.
Honestly, I don't have much faith in Linux anymore, and it has everything to do with the explosion of the kernel's codebase due to the explosion of cheaper devices running linux and the (admittedly difficult) management issues surrounding the kernel. I feel like from a security perspective, macos is a better choice and that pains me as a long time linux user.
Can we please move on to microkernels already? I'm fine with a tiny performance hit, I just don't want to get rooted because I plugged in the wrong USB stick.
If you don't want to go macOS route and want to leave Linux world, your destination would be FreeBSD or OpenBSD.
On the other hand, if you're not running Wine, you can't get autorun virii from USB drives, plus the Windows virii just lives there and can't do anything.
Plan9 is like ocean yacht racing. If you have to ask about the "cost" you aren't the target market.
Plan9 is like writing. You either do it, or talk about doing it. I'm talking not doing btw. I tried, but I got stuck on trivial things and the barrier to asking for help over 2+2= is high. (No offence intended. The 9 heads aren't interested in running a kindergarden)
You can use microkernels whenever you want. Just be aware that they typically have the same issues with zombie/cruft code and aren't necessarily more secure for every application.
Does this board boot Linux via a device tree, or have hardware discovery?
How about UEFI vs arm-specific bootloaders?
I tried arm32 Linux a few years back, and the largest hindrance at the time was the device trees and non-UEFI boot process. Given up on exploring the platform further (except maybe for SBC like raspberry pi) until that situation improves.
The CIX CP8180 uses UEFI (it is intended to boot Windows which requires it) but the boot flow can, I believe, use either ACPI or device trees, based on a boot setting. The ACPI boot flow has the advantage that any normal Linux distro should work, while the device tree variant I think has more hardware enablement.
The upstream story due to this is kind of a mixed bag, though. I think they also still use out-of-tree NPU drivers, etc. Device trees and other updates are still flowing upstream. I think the next Mesa release will support the Immortalis GPU series though, so that'll hopefully polish off a big remaining problem with ordinary distros.
is it possible to install for example a current "vanilla" debian arm64 on this mainboard!?
what i mean by that:
write the "official" debian arm64 installation image to a thumbdrive, press some key & boot into the installation!?
and run the resulting system with the distributions "offical" kernel from the debian arm64-architecture!?
w/o jumping thru a few "hoops" like a lion in a circus ... ;)
i know ... the "openness" of the descendants of ibm pc at compatible machines was some kind of a "historical" error by ibm, but i got used to it!!
i like to "own" hardware i bought with my hard-earned money. i heavily prefer hardware, which is easily bootable from "inoffical" boot-medias - read: FOSS ... eg. linux/*BSD/...
and i'm not interested in "clamped down" hardware a la "most" available ARM boards - regardless of notebooks/tablets/phones ...
It looks like the pro is the version with the full framework laptop chassis, battery, etc, and the standard is the version in the coolermaster case. (The black one with antennas on top)
Qualcomm talked a lot about Snapdragon X Elite as the future of Windows and Linux on ARM, but results so far are mixed. Windows on ARM is finally usable on recent laptops, yet compatibility gaps remain, and Linux support is still far from mature.
The high idle power on the Framework ARM upgrade board shouldn’t be blamed solely on MetaComputing or CIX. Poor idle power efficiency is a long-standing issue on Linux laptops, especially with new platforms, so this looks more like an ecosystem-level power-management problem than a single-vendor failure.
What stands out to me is that Chinese companies are actually shipping hardware and pushing into every possible market segment. Their decentralized, diversified corporate ecosystem seems to enable fast experimentation and broad market penetration.
I'd like to ask HN a very vaguely related question. I need to get a self-hosted runner (for GitHub Actions) that is capable of running Windows ARM64. What are my options other than buying a machine and do everything manually? Are there any service providers that offer Windows ARM64 VMs? I can only seem to find options for Linux.
In case you don't already know, there are Github-hosted runners that run Windows arm64 [1]
Also, it's not what you're asking, but self-hosted runners are a security nightmare if you don't have the hardware to completely isolate them from your local network.
Save you a click or two. Looking at this I have so many questions. Am I buying a mainboard? It is not clear. It lists ports: it only supports 2 ports? You have four options with 16/32gigs and 1tb of storage? Is the storage soldiered? If so, what is the storage? emmc? Soldiered memory seems to be a given in the ARM ecosystem, but the storage is completely unacceptable on a framework mainboard.
The only difference between the pro and the regular is that the second port is a usb-c over an hdmi? I am assuming this is the mainboard even supporting framework extension cards.
No listed Linux compatibility support. Forget if the NPU even works in Linux; I do not even know if this will boot Linux because the company did not bother to submit devicetree patches to the kernel for their SOC. No listed Windows support even.
my impression was the "pro" is the same board but comes with a framework 13 chassis, but yeah the lack of explicit details does not inspire confidence.
I've had a Framework 13 for several years now, so I'm excited to see this kind of thing start to happen. Praying the next one out is a GPU/tensor workload unit so I'm not stuck at home on my desktop when I want to mess around with local AI models...
The complaints about battery life are valid however I see this as a test board to help bring more Linux programs to life on ARM. It can also be useful for porting other OSes like Haiku.
These Snapdragon X processors have some drama around not having decent Linux support, right?
EDIT: Sorry, not SnapdragonX - apparently I can't read.
Also, who is "MetaComputing" and can I trust them with my money? Something about the big "Web 3 Integrated Devices" branding on their landing page makes me less than enthusiastic. Otherwise I'd be hovering over 'buy'
They are selling a configuration that costs $810.00 on Framework's website for only $549.00. Zero actual info on the about page or Google. I would treat it with suspicion at best.
They're just selling the motherboard on its own, not a whole laptop. To make if a complete system, you'd have to buy a laptop chassis from Framework's parts site and install the motherboard yourself.
I would love to have a Framework laptop, but there is no guarantee the company will be around as long as, say, Lenovo, Dell, Apple, etc., and I would hate to get used to being able to customize on the fly, then have to go back to a run-of-the-mill laptop just because Framework went out of business.
Better to have loved and lost then to have never loved at all. Why not buy the Framework, support the business, and have a laptop that's making you happy while it's around?
There's no guarantee any company lasts forever. What's the point in not using something now because it might be gone in the future?
In the worst case you would have used your Framework just like a regular laptop from Lenovo, Dell or Apple. You might not gain much, but you also don't lose anything.
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