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> The Framework’s remarkable expansion card system is another reason why this laptop is my favorite of the year. If you’re not familiar with it, the bottom of t

by dpark 5y ago

> The Framework’s remarkable expansion card system is another reason why this laptop is my favorite of the year. If you’re not familiar with it, the bottom of the laptop sports four slots, each of which accepts a Framework Expansion Card that slides into place with a click and connects to the laptop via USB-C… It’s literally custom USB-C dongles. If Apple shipped this people would decry them as leveraging their lock in to make people buy basic ports that should have been built in for free. > You could swap in an HDMI out when you’re going to give a presentation, for example, or a microSD card reader when you need to pull some photos off a camera. Yep. That’s how dongles work.

Rebelgecko 5y ago
I thought the word "dongle" only referred to external things (remember the "fork my dongle" controversy?). With the framework, they're part of the laptop and won't catch on things, get left behind, or prevent it from fitting into your bag.
drekk 5y ago
Apple doesn't let you switch out the mainboard. I think that's the value of these USB-C dongles that are cheaper than Apple peripherals + lay flush to the laptop. Sticking to USB-C means the chassis doesn't have to change between upgrades
ryukafalz 5y ago
> It’s literally custom USB-C dongles. Yes, but try carrying your laptop around with four USB-C dongles permanently attached and see how well that works for you. This is nice if you don't want to have to constantly remember to carry specific dongles with you. > If Apple shipped this people would decry them as leveraging their lock in to make people buy basic ports that should have been built in for free. No they wouldn't, if it shipped with them like the Framework does.
- dpark 5y ago
  Framework charges extra for anything that isn’t just usb-c. (But yeah, Apple would charge 2-3x as much for each.) I don’t have an issue with them shipping this feature. It’s not a bad idea. I just find it weird how enthusiastic the author is about custom dongles. This seems, at best, a nice to have.
  - DarylZero 5y ago
    They're not dongles, because they're integrated into the body. They are proprietary connectors, though.
    - josephcsible 5y ago
      They're not proprietary. They're just USB-C, and if you mean the overall shape of them, then they're still not: https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/ExpansionCards https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/ExpansionCards is available under CC-BY.
    - gbin 5y ago
      They are not dongles... If you want to be standard you just get 4 of them as pure USB C pass through (for 8 bucks or so) and then you can use any USB C dongles you want. Those are more modular ports, you use them as semi-permanent configurations.
  - andreareina 5y ago
    I have a Framework. Way I see it, the primary value of the expansion cards is that I can choose what long-term setup suits me best: do I need usb-a because I'm still interfacing with legacy tech? Some people need none, some one or more microSD? Don't need it, but someone else does and they're happy it's for all intents and purposes integrated. I used to have an external drive at my desk as a backup but it's kind of a pain unplugging it when I want to move around, or keeping it attached but having to gingerly carry the drive around. Storage expansion is so much more convenient, and it's not like I didn't have that port occupied all the time anyway. Reducing this kind of friction is gold. It's like reducing the edit-compile-test latency, at certain points you get big shifts in the kind of thing it affords. Technically, it's as capable as any laptop with four usb-c ports. In practice it's a big difference. We already have a tradition of customizing our software to better suit our needs, it's only natural that we'd want to extend that to hardware.
dwohnitmok 5y ago
This has come up before (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28607793 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28607793). The usual response I see from Framework owners is it turns out having recessed dongles is actually a surprisingly nice convenience that beats out normal dongles way more than you'd think. But RE the dongles locking people in, you can literally just replace it with an actual normal dongle if you'd like, but also the schematics are completely open (https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/ExpansionCards https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/ExpansionCards). This is very very different from the way Apple does things.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
addicted 5y ago
It’s not a dongle if it doesn’t “dangle” off a computer. That’s literally how the word was created.

by dpark 5y ago

Rebelgecko 5y ago

I thought the word "dongle" only referred to external things (remember the "fork my dongle" controversy?). With the framework, they're part of the laptop and won't catch on things, get left behind, or prevent it from fitting into your bag.

drekk 5y ago

Apple doesn't let you switch out the mainboard. I think that's the value of these USB-C dongles that are cheaper than Apple peripherals + lay flush to the laptop. Sticking to USB-C means the chassis doesn't have to change between upgrades

ryukafalz 5y ago

> It’s literally custom USB-C dongles. Yes, but try carrying your laptop around with four USB-C dongles permanently attached and see how well that works for you. This is nice if you don't want to have to constantly remember to carry specific dongles with you. > If Apple shipped this people would decry them as leveraging their lock in to make people buy basic ports that should have been built in for free. No they wouldn't, if it shipped with them like the Framework does.

dpark 5y ago
Framework charges extra for anything that isn’t just usb-c. (But yeah, Apple would charge 2-3x as much for each.) I don’t have an issue with them shipping this feature. It’s not a bad idea. I just find it weird how enthusiastic the author is about custom dongles. This seems, at best, a nice to have.
- DarylZero 5y ago
  They're not dongles, because they're integrated into the body. They are proprietary connectors, though.
  - josephcsible 5y ago
    They're not proprietary. They're just USB-C, and if you mean the overall shape of them, then they're still not: https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/ExpansionCards https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/ExpansionCards is available under CC-BY.
  - gbin 5y ago
    They are not dongles... If you want to be standard you just get 4 of them as pure USB C pass through (for 8 bucks or so) and then you can use any USB C dongles you want. Those are more modular ports, you use them as semi-permanent configurations.
- andreareina 5y ago
  I have a Framework. Way I see it, the primary value of the expansion cards is that I can choose what long-term setup suits me best: do I need usb-a because I'm still interfacing with legacy tech? Some people need none, some one or more microSD? Don't need it, but someone else does and they're happy it's for all intents and purposes integrated. I used to have an external drive at my desk as a backup but it's kind of a pain unplugging it when I want to move around, or keeping it attached but having to gingerly carry the drive around. Storage expansion is so much more convenient, and it's not like I didn't have that port occupied all the time anyway. Reducing this kind of friction is gold. It's like reducing the edit-compile-test latency, at certain points you get big shifts in the kind of thing it affords. Technically, it's as capable as any laptop with four usb-c ports. In practice it's a big difference. We already have a tradition of customizing our software to better suit our needs, it's only natural that we'd want to extend that to hardware.

dwohnitmok 5y ago

This has come up before (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28607793 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28607793). The usual response I see from Framework owners is it turns out having recessed dongles is actually a surprisingly nice convenience that beats out normal dongles way more than you'd think. But RE the dongles locking people in, you can literally just replace it with an actual normal dongle if you'd like, but also the schematics are completely open (https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/ExpansionCards https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/ExpansionCards). This is very very different from the way Apple does things.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

addicted 5y ago

It’s not a dongle if it doesn’t “dangle” off a computer. That’s literally how the word was created.