[sudders]

Can't wait for framework laptop to run Linux/Ubuntu stable (without battery drain issues)

Then I'll be switching all the developers in our company over to a new machine.

(Currently running XPS 13, but we are due an upgrade, especially on memory)

[aunty_helen]

This is a point that people should remember if they're thinking about purchasing a framework. This is still very much beta hardware.

The battery drain is annoying, it's around 30-50% per night depending on what addon cards you have. I've got a setup that puts it close to 40% per night so the laptop has to live on charger over night if I want to use it the next day.

However, the thing that's really stopping me from using my laptop (it has sat in my office for the last 3 weeks with its lid closed) is the touchpad. https://community.frame.work/t/subpar-touchpad/3962 External mouse only.

The mac-book killer was very much hyperbole from paid reviewers.

Edit: Also, the I'll throw in the speakers being absolute garbage as well. Think 1 step above 90s pc speaker. And the sound device has a constant background static when using headphones which clicks on when there's sound and then 2 seconds after any sound being played clicks off.

[omdv]

Anecdotal, so obviously YMMV.

On battery - I am using "sleep then hibernate", which typically means 4-6% of battery drain overnight which happens while it is in first ~2hrs of sleep mode. Of course it means you now spend 30sec booting up, but I can live with that.

On touchpad - weird, my experience is opposite. I'd say this is the closest to Macbook experience I had, no issues whatsoever.

Speakers are a bit quiet, agreed, no static or anything, we occasionally use it to watch Netflix with my wife, while away from TV, interchangeably with her Macbook and definitely wouldn't call it garbage.

So, all in all I am in "quite happy" camp. Yes, not Macbook killer, but for me it is close enough and without any major inconveniences, but with all OSS benefits and presumably infinite upgradeability. I use Arch btw :)

[dheera]

I also do have the battery drain issue running 21.10.

I'm generally otherwise super happy with it though. The speakers don't bother me much, they're good enough for calls, and if I'm actually trying to listen to music I'll just use actual bluetooth speakers or headphones.

I'm most happy about the fact that they put an actually decent screen and key switches. Many other laptops that run Linux have shitty 1080p screens and shitty keyboards.

And the fact that I was able to shove in 2TB of SSD and 64GB of RAM all bought at market pricing, not at Lenovo or Apple pricing.

[qudat]

Running arch with wayland and sway on a framework. Setting up sleep-then-hibernate via systemd works beautifully. I only lose a few % overnight.

That’s the thing with running Linux as a desktop, you’ve gotta tweak it to get it just right.

Battery life is a non issue for me on the framework. The speakers on the other hand is a brutal downgrade.

More thoughts here comparing a 2018 mbp: https://erock.io/2021/11/01/framework-vs-mbp.html

[causi]

Yes, I'll be excited about version 2. Version 1 just has too many missed opportunities. For example, a single type-c bay could accommodate two type-A ports, or one port and one microsd reader. Wasting a whole one on a reader is dumb when most laptops just have one stuck somewhere. Give me a bay with a pop-out bluetooth mouse in it. Give me a non-chiclet keyboard and a touchpad with real buttons and a dGPU option and a removable battery in standard and extended sizes.

Why buy a laptop with four interchangeable ports when my normal laptop has two USB-A, one USB-C, HDMI, microsd, and a charge port all at the same time? Heck you can't even charge the Framework unless you leave one port as USB-C.

[abeisgreat]

Had mine for a couple weeks, has some trouble sleeping / waking in Ubuntu 21.10 but aside from that (and the poor speakers) it's basically perfect. Trackpad is good and I don't see any battery drain issues. Definitely easier experience than getting Linux on other modern laptops.

[TranquilMarmot]

??? I absolutely love the touchpad on the Framework. I think people got spoiled by Macbook touchpads- no, and I mean NO, Linux/Windows laptops out there have a comparable touchpad to the Macbook. What the Framework has is good for what's available. Honestly I don't mind tap-to-click vs. press-to-click.

I can agree that the speakers aren't stellar but that's something I don't care about on a laptop since I always have on headphones or I'm just using the speakers for video conferencing or something. Never experienced any background static when using headphones.

[ksec]

Your link actually answered your question in the 2nd reply.

>That’s not subpar, that’s standard. There’s a reason why macbook touchpads are so widely praised.

Trackpad improvement in current gen PC is a very recent thing. After people trashing PC laptop trackpad for years, and Microsoft throwing in some R&D money to help improve the situation.

And again if you are comparing to a Macbook, most PC speaker has been garbage for years. Only when reviewer start comparing their PC laptop speakers to Macbook did they start to put effort into improving it.

I dont know any reviewer actually said it is Macbook Killer. It would actually be a stupid thing to say. ( Show them to me so I will take notes ). But I am not surprised because current generation so called reviewers have practically little hardware and supply chain knowledge.

There are of compromise being made to have it all fixable. But they also put in the extra effort in motherboard reliability design. And things that aren't so obvious. Compared to Macbook which is all integrated. ( Although that is changing now, you see more individual components "blocks" being used )

I think it is an expectation problem. And may be people should not have overhyped it so much.

[freedomben]

> The mac-book killer was very much hyperbole from paid reviewers.

Just because people have a different opinion than you doesn't mean they are hyperbolic paid reviewers. I love the trackpad, although I did have a minor issue out of the box where I had to click kind of hard toward the bottom center to get it to start working. I expect those things will go away as they get better. It's gotta be damn hard to put together such a complex hardware product.

[pmontra]

I didn't try the Framework but by looking at it my complaint with the touchpad would be that it has no physical buttons. Hard to middle click to paste with Linux. I only buy laptops with 3 buttons and I disable clicking on the touchpad, so the pointer doesn't move when I click. I've got the buttons after all...

Anyway, this is a 13.5" laptop so space is at a premium. I can't expect to include everything. But if they'll build a 15" laptop with NO NUMBERPAD and buttons on the touchpad, I'll consider buying it. I'll pay extras for those buttons and for the numberpad-less keyboard.

[frakkingcylons]

> The mac-book killer was very much hyperbole from paid reviewers.

Hold on. Which reviewers received payments in return for positive coverage of the laptop?

[emptysongglass]

Has the 3.07 BIOS update fixed the overnight drain issue? [1]

[1] https://community.frame.work/t/bios-3-07-windows-10-and-11-a...

[tebruno99]

Weird, I love the touchpad. So much better than My Dell XPS 9710

[nikodunk]

Is this an issue for Ubuntu specifically or all distributions? Read somewhere that they recommended Fedora 35 for the best driver support at the moment, though that'll probably change after the next releases of 22.04 and F36.

Awesome that you're switching your whole team to Frameworks - my next work laptop will for sure be a Framework too :)

[freedomben]

The main reason for this is that the drivers are in the kernel, and Fedora ships new kernels regularly. Ubuntu and many other distros will stay on the same version they initially ship with. For example if they start with 5.14.2 then even a couple years later it will be 5.14.86-200. Fedora tends to ship new major versions of the kernel within weeks of them being released upstream, so you're constantly getting bug fixes and new drivers. I prefer the ubuntu approach for servers (which is how RHEL/CentOS do it) but for desktop it's great to see it continually get better.

If you build/install the latest kernel (or a newer one) on Ubuntu I would expect a similar experience to Fedora (although Gnome and wayland versions can make a difference on some things.)

[kkielhofner]

I've taken to having a Fedora 35 install on a bootable USB SSD. I don't prefer it for daily use (Ubuntu/Pop for me) but if I'm ever in doubt when debugging a suspected Framework issue I boot into Fedora 35 as that's the semi-official/supported distro and version.

Generally speaking I haven't found it to be any better than my Framework optimized PopOS 20.04 NVMe boot setup:

- Rock solid Intel wifi (mostly thanks to Pop providing kernel 5.15.15)

- Fingerprint reader works (custom fprintd/libfprint debs, kind of hacky but works)

- PipeWire PPA for better bluetooth audio support

- Suspend-then-hibernate for battery drain issues

- Probably some other stuff I'm forgetting ATM

- Quickemu

- Still basically Ubuntu LTS for the occasionally goofy/proprietary stuff I need to run requiring it

[jakamau]

You'll still have a battery drain issue for Fedora 35 (1-2%/hour while in suspend). Like some other commenters, I went through the extra hassle to set up a swap partition and sleep-then-hibernate. I genuinely enjoy the laptop now that I've resolved the standby battery drain.

[sowbug]

Ubuntu 21.04 on Framework won't resume from standby. I have to force-shutdown with a power-button long-press each time. I haven't tried an A/B test, but I read that this behavior is due to the volume being LUKS-encrypted. I don't understand why this would be the case.

Not encrypting the volume isn't an option for me.

[Abishek_Muthian]

> without battery drain issues

Battery drain seems to be a common serious issue among enthusiast linux hardware, e.g. PinePhone, CutiePi and now Framework. Is this a coincidence or is it due to incompatible ACPI on non-standard hardware?

[deepsun]

What is battery drain issue? I have Framework laptop with Linux Mint (Ubuntu inside), and don't see any issues.

If you mean high consumption in "shallow sleep" -- I switched to "deep sleep" in the first day.

[criddell]

Do your developers have a say in what hardware they use?

[sudders]

Yes, however we are unanimously siked for framework.

[willmorrison]

I’m using Arch with Wayland and Sway and I notice very little battery drain. I generally shut it down overnight though. Do most people rarely shut down their laptops?

[hypothermic]

I assume most people use FDE nowadays. Unless you're using a really well modified LUKS setup the encryption keys stay in RAM while the PC is hibernating/sleeping. So I think it's reasonable to assume most people shut their laptop down overnight.