4 ms·

> 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 yo

> 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.
- esyir 5y ago
  Form factor matters. Imagine if your phone has just usb c, but had a recessed insert point where you could have a usbc passthrough, 3.5mm Jack hybrid. It would be superior in almost all cases to just having the jack and USB c. For one, not having external dongles means transport and packing become a lot easier

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.
esyir 5y ago
Form factor matters. Imagine if your phone has just usb c, but had a recessed insert point where you could have a usbc passthrough, 3.5mm Jack hybrid. It would be superior in almost all cases to just having the jack and USB c. For one, not having external dongles means transport and packing become a lot easier