I'm happy to answer questions anyone has on this product!
I have a couple HP Chromebook 13 G1 laptops that I loved quite a lot for ~5 years as my primary personal laptop. It worked really well for 95% of my needs, especially once it got the Linux container support (which was ~4 years in).
The first one I got was $550 for the 8GB RAM model with i5 and "retina" screen, that was a refurb from Woot, almost half off. The second one I got around a year ago when Linux container support landed, 16GB RAM, i7, "retina" screen. That one I got off ebay for $120 landed. I also got my son one that he used until a few days ago. Pretty decent little machine for that price.
My son switched to a $120 Windows ASUS laptop this past weekend because the Chromebook wouldn't run Windows games. I was half expecting him to give up on the new laptop because 4GB isn't much RAM, but he says it works great.
My mother in law was recently asking for laptop advice for a "ward of the court" she oversees that could do with a laptop to do zoom meetings for the court appearances, and to use for school. I went looking for Chromebooks and found: they are all priced the same as a similarly speced Windows laptop. The things I value about ChromeOS ("instant" updates, "nothing really on the device", "security") aren't things the average person (let alone teen) really care about... Kind of hard to recommend a Chromebook for the average person these days, unless I'm missing something.
I'm having a hard time imagining the audience for this product. EDU most likely isn't going to go with this product due to cost (and can get easily complex, imagine trying to juggle all the expansion ports being lost by students), and typical audiences for ChromeOS devices don't always overlap with audiences who want easy repairability (and most likely are purchasing the device for the lack of nuances that other OSes provide).
I'm not sure if HN is a representative audience regarding interest in ChromeOS, but personally all I hope is the money Framework makes from this allows them to release a larger model on which I can slap Linux on. Lightweight 15" laptops with great Linux compatibility aren't so easy to find.
The words chromebook and privacy in the same marketing material for a product that clearly targets power users is an audacious choice
I wonder if it will have proper CCD (Case Closed Debugging)[0] support.
With CCD, you are pretty much free to mess around with the "BIOS" of the machine, without fear of being put in a bad situation.
It also provides a serial terminal to the "AP" (application processor), e.g. available to the OS.
In other words, the Cr50 provides a controlled and user-controlled (but not user-owned) sideband channel to debug the system, even on consumer hardware.
Why user-controlled? Because it requires asserting presence to "Open", which with the design of ChromeOS basically requires being the owner of the device. Why not user-owned? For official ChromeOS devices, AFAIK that firmware cannot be replaced by a user with their own builds.
[0]: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/ec/+/c...
This makes me afraid that the company might at some point be acquired by Google.
Hopefully someone can take that fear away.
Combining hardware privacy switches with a Google chromebook is like pasting a "vegan" sticker on a slab of meat.
I hope this works out for them. The largest market for Chromebooks are schools but are schools willing to pay Frameworks price? I don't believe so but I hope I'm wrong.
This is awesome! I still use my Pixelbook, and I love it, and was always dismayed that it seemed to be yet another great product that Google lost interest in.
For folks wondering "who's the market in this?", the Linux container support in ChromeOS is awesome - my Pixelbook was actually a great dev laptop (I ran postgres, VSCode, Node, etc on it), just with age it's lack of upgrades is starting to show. So for me, on the "ChromeOS side", for me it's a benefit that it's basically just browser and android apps, and then on the Linux side I have everything I need for development.
I gave up waiting for the AMD version. Intel must be able to turn the screws down really tight on small shops. I wonder how it is done, exactly.
Meanwhile, folks in European countries such as Spain are not able to buy a regular Framework laptop...
This is excellent. The last major missing piece was coreboot, and this presumably delivers that. Also, could you please make/sell suzyQ cables (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/14746)? They've been OOS since COVID. Edit: Is i5 the only option ? There's no i7 option on the order page.
I hope this does not backfire as a product without a target audience. I want to see framework succeed in making modular hardware, not at offering lock-in services from Google or even promoting ChromeOS and other Google products.
I use a Chromebook for development as well. It's $100 computer and it is just fantastic. I throw it around with such peace of mind, and the battery life is just incredible!
It has only one issue for me, it does not have enough power to run MS Teams on the brownser, and the Android app does not work well.
A native app from MS would be quite nice :)
I am disappointed, there is Chromebook edition, but still no Linux edition only DIY.
Oh shit I might get this. I've moved to ChromeOS for virtually everything and it's awesome, and I've been looking for an excuse to try framework
ChromeOS is a privacy nightmare I cannot recommend to anyone which is a real shame because it is perhaps the most secure consumer focused workstation operating system out there.
I wish any vendor would offer a privacy-by-default telemetry-disabled ChromiumOS option I could actually recommend.
Not having the ServoV4 available to anyone but Google employees completely invalidates any praises of this thing being "open". Additionally, the Titan C chip included on the mainboard doesn't appear to be socketed (please correct me if I'm wrong), so you're basically stuck with a proprietary processor hooked into your machine doing god knows what. Note that the Titan C isn't open source like the "OpenTitan" project, which means they're basically privacy-washing chromebooks.
I don't have a problem with them making a chromebook but not releasing Coreboot firmware for the existing boards is giving me bad vibes, really worried Framework's leadership is compromised.
This is great news! Chromebooks don’t have to be low spec machines! I recent bought a machine off of the list at https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11513094?hl=e... just so that I could have a decent device with decent specs to run ChromeOS Flex—and the more I use it, the more I enjoy a machine that Just Works, requires little maintenance and runs alongside the flexibility of a modern Debian Linux VM.
Congrats to frame.work for creating another decent product. But disappointed that it's an Intel device yet again. Why no AMD? (And can we replace ChromeOS with Linux or FreeBSD?)
Interesting to see they have a super key-less keyboard for this.
I’m really hoping they release a standard keyboard with a generic “super” key instead of a Windows logo at some point.
Will be interesting to read reviews on the battery life.
I've used a Chromebook a fair bit over many models. I even got a beta CR-48 when they first launched. The best models are tent * yoga style and touch enabled and also come with a stylus.
I searched the Framework Chromebook page for "touch" and found 0 results. I hope they are working towards a touch enabled Chromebook.
I love my Chromebook and I'm not looking for a replacement, but I do still like to look at new devices.
I personally think that this Framework Chromebook is way to expensive at 999$, but I do fine from a non USD economy, so many technologies coming from US are too expensive for me. That being said, my vision has always been that Chromebooks are light, affordable and battery life that will last longer then you. I paid around 400€ for my Chromebook, the most important specification was FHD IPS display and at least 12h of battery.
I'm aware that Google made Chromebooks with very high prices, but I don't think many bought those.
That's why seeing this laptop for 999$ seem a bit too much, especially now that you can get M1 MacBook Air for the same price! And it's just as user-friendly, if not slightly more.
Still waiting for this laptop to be available where I live, I'm at the point where I'm loosing the last bit of hope and am considering to just buy a different product. Which really annoys me, because I was never as hyped for a laptop as for this one.
My best device for the last 3-4 years have been Eve Chromebook with 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD - still can't find a newer Chromebook that matches it :(
That's all I wanted... something newer that runs Vulkan too in Crostini :)
A Chromebook with no touchscreen? Seriously.
My only quibble is that the display isn't high resolution.
So do I have to add more RAM to this later? I can't just buy it with the max'd out RAM?
What is the auto-update expiration date ? https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366
If Google partnered with Microsoft to bring the complete Excel/Word/PowerPoint programs to ChromeOS, I would jump ship in a heartbeat for our office fleet.
I wonder if CodeWeavers CrossOver can run Office on ChromeOS reliably.
This is like that modular phone thing that I haven't heard about in forever. I'm not sure how making a device appealing to 60K folks, maybe, makes any sense.
What's the deal with these expensive Chromebooks? Who needs a $1K Chromebook when you can get a good laptop for that kind of money?
This looks great!
And a $300 Chromebook in and EDU environment will last 5-7 years. I wonder if this laptop which is ~4x the price can last 15 years?
Honestly I would have preferred if they’d offered a 15”-16” version instead of this.
Oh well, looks like Apple’s gonna get my money..
Any way to configure this with 16GB or more of RAM so that I don't need to upgrade later?
Chromebooks were great because they ran on ARM. Now all the new chromebooks run on Intel. I can’t find any ARM chromebooks at IRL stores anymore.
ARM chromebooks > Intel chromebooks, and if they continue pushing Intel they’re killing the reason that chromebooks can be both cheap and good
EDIT: And if you want to use it for Crostini… why are you getting a chromebook
Seems like it's targeting the wrong crowd. Framework laptops would naturally appeal to the tinkerer and techie crowd, meanwhile ChromeOS is very much a casual user kind of OS. It makes sense to have $300 Acer laptops running ChromeOS, not so much a $1000 repairable laptop...
when can i buy it in europe?
But... why. Why would anyone get a chromebook? I still dont get it. Whats the point of having one?
Ick.
No.
Doesn't work in intellij
What we've been asking for is a Framework running AMD hardware.
What we're getting is a Framework running a stripped down Linux meant for schools and made by a spy company?
I predict this thing not selling well, but I'm sure someone is excited.
[dead]
undefined
Why is the fingernails of the last image grey? Gave me flashbacks of a really fucked up toenails I saw in a podiatrist
I’m reminded of this line in Bruce Almighty: “All this horsepower and no room to gallup”
Is there really a market for a $999 Chromebook? Didn’t google try this several years ago and flop?
The brilliance is that framework doesn’t have to ship anything, unless customers pay a deposit, which would validate the demand. I don’t see how they could lose here.
I hesitated posting this, because I don't want to be too negative, but: ugh. ChromeOS is just more Google adware/tracking-ware, locking people into the Google ecosystem, and (by default, at least) creating a more locked-down environment than a general-purpose OS would have (not quite iOS or even Android, but still not with the flexibility of a "mainstream" OS). I feel like Framework could be spending their time doing much better things. Granted, if they believe that this will be a big boost to their bottom line / margins / sustainability, then I'm in favor of it on the grounds of helping make sure Framework is a successful company.
My hope was that this is just running on the standard Framework laptop hardware, but it looks like it required a bit of a mainboard redesign, as well as a different input cover and keyboard. Extra hardware like that just makes their offering more difficult for a customer to navigate and understand, not to mention the added support and manufacturing burden on the company's side.