4 ms·

> Not now, not in the next 5 years. I wonder how long it'll actually take Framework. ThinkPads are built on experience going back to the first one by IBM Japan

by zamnos 4y ago

> Not now, not in the next 5 years. I wonder how long it'll actually take Framework. ThinkPads are built on experience going back to the first one by IBM Japan in 1992 and have certainly evolved through the years. The modularity of the Framework means that they can sell things in batches, so newer hardware becomes available as they make them. The question is how much time/money/effort they'll put into iterating the frame itself. Since they don't have to wait for a generation to elapse, the laptop frame team can just keep iterating as often as they're allowed to. A physical case issue with a gen 1 X1C Thinkpad had to wait until the gen two X1C were ready. The framework just has to wait for a factory to have available capacity and to have the funds to pay for it, decoupling the laptop's frame from the hardware inside of it.

csdvrx 4y ago
I don't see that as a problem of iterations, but scale: Framework just doesn't have the same engineering capacity as Lenovo (at least, not yet). They are bound to make errors, or make suboptimal choices because the optimal ones are costly. It's the same for smaller manufacturers like GPD. > A physical case issue with a gen 1 X1C Thinkpad Physical cases issues with thinkpad are extremely rare. Comparing the framework case to any random X1 thinkpad, I know which one I'd pick without hesitation. > decoupling the laptop's frame from the hardware inside of it That's addressing the wrong problem - and it's nothing special: Framework could have started like the X62 project and offered motherboards for current thinkpads. It would have been less ambitious, more expansive and would've reduce the market size (as paying for a thinkpad + a framework motherboard would be strictly greater than just a thinkpad and making do with say the Thinkpad keyboard if you don't like it) but it would have guaranteed a better results. I sincerely hope they succeed, because more choice is always better, but right now, they'll have to be reinventing the wheel for a while.

by zamnos 4y ago

csdvrx 4y ago

I don't see that as a problem of iterations, but scale: Framework just doesn't have the same engineering capacity as Lenovo (at least, not yet). They are bound to make errors, or make suboptimal choices because the optimal ones are costly. It's the same for smaller manufacturers like GPD. > A physical case issue with a gen 1 X1C Thinkpad Physical cases issues with thinkpad are extremely rare. Comparing the framework case to any random X1 thinkpad, I know which one I'd pick without hesitation. > decoupling the laptop's frame from the hardware inside of it That's addressing the wrong problem - and it's nothing special: Framework could have started like the X62 project and offered motherboards for current thinkpads. It would have been less ambitious, more expansive and would've reduce the market size (as paying for a thinkpad + a framework motherboard would be strictly greater than just a thinkpad and making do with say the Thinkpad keyboard if you don't like it) but it would have guaranteed a better results. I sincerely hope they succeed, because more choice is always better, but right now, they'll have to be reinventing the wheel for a while.