It’s a non-stop parade of weirdness. Fixes from recent BIOS release notes include things like “Fix battery not charging when system is off.”
https://knowledgebase.frame.work/en_us/framework-laptop-bios...
Again, part of me is glad I supported them. I just wish I wasn’t reminded of it several times a week when I’m dealing with one random issue or another with it.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I regret it more than any other large technology purchase I’ve ever made. If it weren’t for the principal of the matter I’d just cut my losses, buy something else, and put this thing in a closet.
I'm curious, do you have a 11th gen or 12th gen Framework? I have a 12th gen 1280P Framework which runs Pop!_OS that I received a month ago, and have yet to run into a single issue of any kind. I wonder if the issues you've faced are due to being an early adopter, wherein they may have fixed some of those issues with their second revision.
I also run a startup from it, wherein it's my software development machine when I don't feel like sitting at my desktop. It would need to be flawless in order to accomplish that as I can't really tolerate any downtime due to computer issues especially when I have a fully functioning high-end desktop, and flawless it has been. In fact, this is the first laptop that doesn't make me miss my desktop from being too slow or otherwise not performing the way I'd like.
Charging works regardless of the laptop being on or off, it performs beyond my expectations with no thermal issues while pushing the processor to its limit (something other laptops have always failed at for me), and the various expansion cards all work very well regardless of what configuration they're in. Overall, I've been regarding it as one of the best purchases I've made recently. After a month of ownership and using it over my desktop, I can honestly say that I picked the right laptop. I would lambaste the laptop if it had issues, but I can't think of one time over the past month where it's been problematic.
This doesn't even touch on the fact that if I were to have an issue, Framework's support has seemed to be very responsive based on others' reports (especially for a startup), and the fact that I can continue to use the laptop or even just have it in my possession while whichever replacement part is being shipped out. This alone would make me choose this laptop over any other.
To be fair, the widely praised 16" Macbook Pro had a very similar issue. The battery did not charge via USB-C when computer is off and lid is closed, if I recall correctly. I don't know if they fixed it, in practise my computer is almost never off.
There is also an issue where the built-in webcam stops working and you need to restart the computer to get it to work again.
Considering how much I spent on the machine I was hoping not to be bothered by issues like this...
I haven't had the same issues with my framework. I'm running an Intel 11-gen i5 version of a framework I bought in Feb of '22. Sure the battery life sucks for Fedora and the trackpad is a overly sensitive but overall it's worked fine for me. I complained to them about a noisy fan and they sent me a new one.
Perhaps there's some variability in the build quality between machines or batches. I've been happy with my purchase.
That's a shame. Maybe you could still sell it (pass on the principles to someone with no startup to run) and get a better laptop. Thanks for the elaboration.
From my perspective using a 12th gen on Fedora 36, which is allegedly the best supported Linux flavor (although Windows on the Framework doesn't have many of these issues so I'm considering installing it instead):
* Horrific battery life. I don't actually mind that the battery life under light usage is in the 6-7 hours neighborhood. What I do mind is that the battery life when the laptop isn't being used is abysmal. When I shut the lid, I lose 20% of the battery every day. Since I got the Framework to supplement a desktop, that really isn't acceptable. Fedora 36 doesn't do hibernate out of the box, but on OSes where that's doable battery life while inactive should be better
* The trackpad scrolling is annoyingly fast, and I haven't found a way to change it (on my mac I can just change the scroll speed under mouse settings, but Fedora doesn't expose that option)
* Speaking of the settings app, the settings app FREQUENTLY causes the laptop to lock up. This is a known issue and might only affect certain hardware configs, but it is super annoying.
* Brightness buttons don't work out of the box. Only way to use them is to disable the laptop's built in brightness sensor
* Don't love the fn key placement but maybe I'll get used to it over time
My Arch Linux install running Sway loses a few percent overnight (max 10-20%). This is with deep sleep enabled (1) in kernel parameters. My Framework has an 11th gen i5.
“DeepSleep:
My Framework is defaulting to S2Idle which is burning through battery like crazy during sleep. you can enable deep sleep by adding a kernel boot option in `/boot/efi/loader/entries/pop_OS-current.conf`
Just add `mem_sleep_default=deep`
At the end of the options line. Waking up from sleep will take a little bit longer, but you won’t be chewing up battery while you rest.”
I’m building a startup and it turns out trying to build a startup literally on a startup maybe isn’t the best idea.
I sincerely regret the purchase.