Actually, this was more than a hypothetical situation. I got my 12th Gen Framework and and started with Linux 5.18 which was fine. Recently 5.19.12 was released

Actually, this was more than a hypothetical situation. I got my 12th Gen Framework and and started with Linux 5.18 which was fine. Recently 5.19.12 was released which had a potentially panel killing display flicker regression [1] apparently due to a bad automated backport [2]. You can see from the thread that this was only noticed because someone pointed out the Framework community forum thread [3] on the kernel list. AFAICT, this regression could have potentially affected all Intel laptops (here's a report on an issue w/ an 11th Gen Lenovo laptop that seems to have been affected for example [4]). To me, what's interesting is that none of the ISVs that are Linux-exclusive vendors actually caught this in QC/smoke testing. The alternative seems to be "certifying" to a particular distro, but I don't think that'll help most people who run Linux and have the distros they like. Sometimes Linux pre-loading can be a negative as well - Dell is notorious for not actually bothering to upstream their kernel changes for the Developer Edition Linux laptops to mainline for example (they'd done it before w/ their touchpads, and currently have the same w/ their webcam drivers). One of the big things in Framework's favor is there's an active official forum, w/ a very active Linux section [5]. I think Lenovo is the only other laptop vendor I've seen that has something comparable. [6] [1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/55905860-adf9-312c-69cc-491ac8ce1a8b@cern.ch/T/#u https://lore.kernel.org/all/55905860-adf9-312c-69cc-491ac8ce... [2] https://lore.kernel.org/all/YzsfrkJcwqKOO+E%2F@intel.com/ https://lore.kernel.org/all/YzsfrkJcwqKOO+E%2F@intel.com/ [3] https://community.frame.work/t/psa-dont-upgrade-to-linux-kernel-5-19-12/23171 https://community.frame.work/t/psa-dont-upgrade-to-linux-ker... [4] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2130699 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2130699 [5] https://community.frame.work/c/framework-laptop/linux/91 https://community.frame.work/c/framework-laptop/linux/91 [6] https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Operating-Systems/ct-p/lx_en https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Operating-Systems/ct-p/lx...