I have been keeping an eye on the devolopment of Framework Laptops for months, so when I received an email yesterday declaring, “Framework Laptop 16 in stock” I quickly assembled a custom configuration and hit the order button. I’ve been told my new laptop will ship within 1-2 weeks.

The 16-inch model was appealing to me because I intend to use it mostly on my desktop in the shack where it will replace an M1 Mac mini that has been my daily driver for four years. The configuration I selected will come without an operating system as I will install Linux on this machine.

This is a continuation of my slow, steady migration away from Apple products. And it’s another piece of the puzzle when it comes to reconfiguring my radio shack where the growing collection of SDR’s is creating a need for more screen real estate and less room for actual radio equipment. I see a future where not even a single radio will sit on my operating desk.

The Framework laptop concept is an interesting innovation. Being highly configurable, it’s been designed to easily repair, replace, and swap major components making it the most configurable laptop on the market and, with a dozen older, non-working laptops stacked up in my garage, it’s difficult to not find this compelling:

We’ve all had the experience of a busted screen, button, or connector that can’t be fixed, battery life degrading without a path for replacement, or being unable to add more storage when full. Individually, this is irritating and requires us to make unnecessary and expensive purchases of new products to get around what should be easy problems to solve.

Our philosophy is that by making well-considered design tradeoffs and trusting customers and repair shops with the access and information they need, we can make fantastic devices that are still easy to repair. Even better, what we’ve done to enable repair also opens up upgradeability and customization. This lets you get exactly the product you need and extends usable lifetime too.

The unfortunate part of this cash outlay is that I have a perfectly good 15-inch Lenovo ThinkPad that was purchased when I retired (2022) that I could install Linux on and make it my primary shack computer, but that hasn’t happened because it’s the only Windows machine in my collection and stupidly, I own some rather expensive ham radio equipment that can only be updated or upgraded using that OS. I intend to eventually liquidate all my radio gear that is incompatible with my OS of choice.

The Framework Laptop isn’t cheap, but if it works out as well as I expect, it should be the perfect fit for any progressive ham shack which is where I intend to put it to work.