4 ms·

This is kind of a weird piece that really doesn't mean anything at all. I understand being in the "honeymoon phase" with a new piece of technology, but I don't

This is kind of a weird piece that really doesn't mean anything at all. I understand being in the "honeymoon phase" with a new piece of technology, but I don't feel like Cory is aware that he's doing that here. But there's some signs: He loved Thinkpads originally, but over the course of several years the company and the quality of the product went down the tubes. Now he's got a brand new laptop that he's only had for one month and is declaring it the best thing ever since sliced bread. But it's not really a fair comparison, a brand new niche product that hasn't been battled tested in any way versus a long-term established brand that he used for years. What will the Framework be like in many years? He offers extremely optimistic ideas, but obviously nothing concrete, because he just got the laptop. I dunno, it just felt weird to me to be like "I loved this product I used for years, but it sucks now" and then say "I love this new product I've barely used!" without a hint of self-awareness that all the optimism and initial love for a product in the world won't keep it from turning into a pile of junk. How long until a "I went back to Thinkpads" article? A year, two, three?

leephillips 5y ago
I did think it odd that he was talking about the durability of a product that he'd barely unwrapped. But his other points seem cogent, and are orthogonal to how long he's used any of the products.
- ncallaway 5y ago
  I don’t think he really talks about the durability, as much as the repairability. For example, he notes that he hasn’t road tested it yet: > However! Most of my use of this computer was from my sofa, while I was recovering from hip-replacement surgery. I haven't road-tested it at all. > But I'll note here that if it turned out that a component failed due to my usual rough handling, I could replace it with a standard part in a matter of minutes, myself, in whatever hotel room I happened to be perching in, using a single screwdriver. That reads to me as a pretty specific disclaimer and that he hasn’t stressed the durability, but more that he has a plan if it isn’t as durable. (Though it’s a long article, and maybe he said something about durability that I missed)
  - leephillips 5y ago
    “It puts the lie to every claim that portability and reliability can't coexist with long-lasting, durable, upgradeable, sustainable hardware.”
fouc 5y ago
Or better yet, after 5-10 years of frame.work laptops being wildly successful, they will slowly start killing off the upgradeability/fixability of the laptop.
- skinkestek 5y ago
  At least then: - we had 5 - 10 years of great laptops (or more likely 7-12 since people will put more effort into repairing their current models if the new are worse.) - if they do this the market had already been proven and anyone with a few spare million $ can go and grab it.
lugu 5y ago
Why being so negative? He seems to like how easy it is to tear down the machine and how easy it is to install ubuntu. That's it. I don't think this will change in 10 years, and I don't want to wait 10 years to hear about his experience.
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  Why be so needlessly positive and generate unworthy hype? We need criticisms that call bullshit on undeserving praise.
MMS21 5y ago
I agree with your honeymoon phase comment but if Framework followed what Lenovo did to ThinkPads, there would be no reason to buy them.
300bps 5y ago
I have a Lenovo Carbon X1. Can’t get more than 16 GB of RAM. Can’t get larger than 1 TB hard drive. Really crappy wifi chipset that blows up when I use a VPN. I kinda feel like he explained what happened to ThinkPad. They went from IBM which for $150 per year would send out a tech anywhere in the world to fix your problem to Lenovo who… let’s just say isn’t as good.
snowwrestler 5y ago
This is just how Cory writes in general. You’re not going to get a lot of measured maybes. He is an opinionated guy. And in this case, what’s the harm? If a laptop doesn’t work out, it can be replaced. This one just got released, so a long-term reliability test isn’t even possible yet.
osrec 5y ago
How is it weird? He very clearly described the degradation in quality of ThinkPads. For what it's worth, I agree. Also, using a laptop for a month is more than enough time to get a feel for how things might play out over the long term. He was clearly impressed enough to commit to an opinion in a short space of time. If his opinion changes, I'm sure we'll hear about that too. I think that's fair enough.

leephillips 5y ago

I did think it odd that he was talking about the durability of a product that he'd barely unwrapped. But his other points seem cogent, and are orthogonal to how long he's used any of the products.

ncallaway 5y ago
I don’t think he really talks about the durability, as much as the repairability. For example, he notes that he hasn’t road tested it yet: > However! Most of my use of this computer was from my sofa, while I was recovering from hip-replacement surgery. I haven't road-tested it at all. > But I'll note here that if it turned out that a component failed due to my usual rough handling, I could replace it with a standard part in a matter of minutes, myself, in whatever hotel room I happened to be perching in, using a single screwdriver. That reads to me as a pretty specific disclaimer and that he hasn’t stressed the durability, but more that he has a plan if it isn’t as durable. (Though it’s a long article, and maybe he said something about durability that I missed)
- leephillips 5y ago
  “It puts the lie to every claim that portability and reliability can't coexist with long-lasting, durable, upgradeable, sustainable hardware.”

fouc 5y ago

Or better yet, after 5-10 years of frame.work laptops being wildly successful, they will slowly start killing off the upgradeability/fixability of the laptop.

skinkestek 5y ago
At least then: - we had 5 - 10 years of great laptops (or more likely 7-12 since people will put more effort into repairing their current models if the new are worse.) - if they do this the market had already been proven and anyone with a few spare million $ can go and grab it.

lugu 5y ago

Why being so negative? He seems to like how easy it is to tear down the machine and how easy it is to install ubuntu. That's it. I don't think this will change in 10 years, and I don't want to wait 10 years to hear about his experience.

systemvoltage 5y ago
Why be so needlessly positive and generate unworthy hype? We need criticisms that call bullshit on undeserving praise.

MMS21 5y ago

I agree with your honeymoon phase comment but if Framework followed what Lenovo did to ThinkPads, there would be no reason to buy them.

300bps 5y ago

I have a Lenovo Carbon X1. Can’t get more than 16 GB of RAM. Can’t get larger than 1 TB hard drive. Really crappy wifi chipset that blows up when I use a VPN. I kinda feel like he explained what happened to ThinkPad. They went from IBM which for $150 per year would send out a tech anywhere in the world to fix your problem to Lenovo who… let’s just say isn’t as good.

snowwrestler 5y ago

This is just how Cory writes in general. You’re not going to get a lot of measured maybes. He is an opinionated guy. And in this case, what’s the harm? If a laptop doesn’t work out, it can be replaced. This one just got released, so a long-term reliability test isn’t even possible yet.

osrec 5y ago

How is it weird? He very clearly described the degradation in quality of ThinkPads. For what it's worth, I agree. Also, using a laptop for a month is more than enough time to get a feel for how things might play out over the long term. He was clearly impressed enough to commit to an opinion in a short space of time. If his opinion changes, I'm sure we'll hear about that too. I think that's fair enough.