Framework 13 'DIY' Laptop: First Impressions

Hello, world!

This is my first article ever written on a Linux machine. It's a brave new world for me as a programmer, 8 years since I started down this career path.

To be specific, I'm writing this on a Framework 13 2023 7640U/32GB/1TB running Ubuntu. I've also installed the Omakub toolset and theme because it's purposefully designed by an even more senior programmer – DHH – for Linux newbies.

In the rest of this post I'll run you through my first impressions of using this laptop and Linux.

As a piece of relevant context: I came from the world of Apple. My last 2 laptops were a MacBook Air 2013 and MacBook Pro 2019.

Physical laptop assembly was easy

The furthest I've gone tinkering with electronics hardware is an Arduino and a breadboard. I've never successfully soldered beyond school. Yet, assembling the Framework laptop was a breeze.

And yeah, of course it should be. It's meant to be a consumer facing laptop!

I found Framework's online instructions precise and very easy to follow. In fact I was assembling the laptop straight out of the box just 15 minutes before I had to leave home to pick up my daughter from kindergarten. I managed to finish more than half the assembly in that time and came back to it later to finish it, all without a hitch.

Linux (Ubuntu) OS installation was easy

Linux has by now had millions of installations and the interactive installation wizard works really well.

Before that, you've got to download the ".iso" file, which you'll then need to "flash" onto a USB stick. I did some quick reading and understand this process to mean formatting a USB stick in the way a BIOS expects a bootable disk to be. As users (and beneficiaries of Linus Torvalds and the open source communty), we really don't need to know more than that unless we're curious.

After assembling my Framework laptop, I plugged my USB stick in and started the machine. Without a hitch, the BIOS ran and a program picked up the fact that there's a mounted bootable disk. From there it's just selecting some options and clicking next until the installation completes!

A breeze.

Keyboard is matte, has good travel and stays quiet

I'm a programmer and I like to write, both of which mean that a keyboard must work well enough to not give me problems.

I've used this keyboard for 3 days now and I can say that it hasn't given me any issues.

Keystrokes are recognised without exception.

The pressure to engage a key is just right -- more or less like that of an Apple Magic Keyboard, but perhaps a tad more travel.

It is very quiet compared to modern MacBook keyboards.

Linux keymap takes a little getting used to

The layout I got was 'International - Linux.'

Linux has the 'super' key, whose functionality doesn't really map to the Apple 'command' key. This was something I didn't really research. But even if I had, to be honest, it probably wouldn't have deterred me from switching.

This just takes a little getting used to.

After 3 days of use, I've already adapted to the need to hold down the 'control' key all the way to the bottom left edge of the keyboard and 'backspace' to delete the whole word, rather than 'alt + backspace' on the Mac.

I think this will not be a huge problem for me. For now, I don't intend to go down the rabbit hole of doing custom keymaps. I'd like to be able to drop onto any Linux machine and work it.

Charging works with my MacBook charger

Framework doesn't force you to buy their laptop charger. I didn't get one after I read online that a MacBook 61W charger should work perfectly.

And yep it did. 60 euros or so, saved.

Installing Omakub toolset was a breeze

I mean, you wouldn't expect any less from the creator of one of the largest open source projects in the world (Ruby on Rails). See Omakub here.

A quick shout here – if you're not a programmer, don't install Omakub. It is purpose-built for people who write code and comes with a number of things that you won't need (like VS Code, Neovim, etc.).

Everything is installed via a single wget command.

There are a lot of things installed that I don't know if I need yet. This might turn some folks off, and I include myself in that group, because it feels almost like bloatware when you have a bunch of apps installed that you don't even know how to use.

That said, I realise that it's a lot healthier to think of it this way: someone just saved you days of figuring out how to make your Ubuntu laptop not just look and feel great, but to be a ready companion on your quests for developer productivity.

Seen that way, I'm happy to know that there's Flameshot, Docker, Alacritty with multiplexer configs setup, Neovim, and so on that's ready for me to use when I need it.

Framework build quality is solid

Comparing to a MacBook, my new Framework 13 laptop feels only slightly less robust. This, to me, is a more than fair tradeoff for the ability to reach in to any crucial part -- battery, memory, storage, even keyboard -- to repair or replace them at any time.

Framework claims on their website about the materials in this laptop are:

• 75% pre-consumer recycled aluminum top cover
• 50% post-consumer recycled aluminum housing
• 30% post-consumer recycled plastic content

The keyboard enclosure is plastic that's coated in grey to resemble the exact tones of the aluminum body of a MacBook and rest of the Framework chassis.

Overall, the build quality leaves nothing more to be desired, unless you like the feeling of luxury.

Touchpad scrolling sensitivity is annoying and not adjustable

My main problem with the laptop so far is the experience with scrolling. To be clear, I believe this is an issue on the OS, not the laptop hardware.

The issue is that it is a little too sensitive – when I scroll with two fingers on a Wikipedia page, I lose my location often because the animation and calibration just feels a lot less natural and refined than on a MacOS machine.

A few specific issues I've faced:

• There's palpable latency from fingers moved to screen repaints.
• A small movement tends to cause a large amount of scroll.
• Scrolling is jagged rather than smooth.

A quick search on the internet says it is actually possible to adjust this, since Linux is open-sourced and allows for anyone to modify any of the underlying source code, plus provides a lot of APIs for extending functionality. But it's not as straightforward as doing it via the Settings app. No options there for scroll sensitivity.

Personally I'm happy to let this rest for now until I understand my usage habits with this machine. I don't yet know if I'm entering a stage in my life where I'd like to code more side projects, read and write more blog posts, or start a business. I can see each path requiring (or not) a tweak of scroll sensitivity because I might use it more/less with an external mouse and monitor.

Just know that this could be a bit annoying and we're not alone.

Packaging materials are 100% recyclable but tough

My Framework laptop, along with all the parts like expansion cards, storage card, memory cards, bezel, and keyboard, came packaged in paper of varying thickness.

The only plastic part I noticed was the thick PET cover for the innards of the keyboard, wedged between the screen and the chassis.

On their website they taut this as "100% recyclable packaging," which from what I can tell, is accurate.

Everything arrived undamaged.

Already missing some nice apps

One of my favourite tools on MacBooks is a third-party app called CleanShot X. It's a powerful and beautiful screenshotting and video recording software. You can draw arrows, pixelate parts of a picture, write text with various bordered fonts, highlight and cast a shadow (like a UI modal) on specific parts. Just a wonderful app.

That's unfortunately only available on macOS.

So now I'm left wondering, am I going to live a rather spartan existence from now on with my PC? Will I just need to get used to MS-Paint level software like Pinta? I don't think I'll be very happy about that in particular because I love marking up screenshots to communicate ideas in blog posts and messages.

This I'll have to spend more time exploring and report back in the future.

But I'm already learning new things

The thing with using such a well packaged consumer product like MacBooks is that you tend to get lazy with technological choices. I've been relying on Apple to give me the 'state of the art' for a while, and I'm beginning to see that there are almost always decent alternatives out there.

For this article, for example, I had to transfer a number of photos I took from my iPhone to my Framework. Thankfully, because I chose to use a landing pad toolset like Omakub – and I actually bothered to read the manual – I discovered LocalSend.

LocalSend is an open source, cross-platform alternative to the proprietary AirDrop from Apple. Because it's cross-platform, this piece of software actually works better than AirDrop in situations where the devices sharing data are on the same WLAN network.

This is likely just the beginning of a journey of discovery of great open source software.

Battery life per charge is shorter than macOS

My last macOS computer was a MacBook 13" 2019 with touchbar. It's not an M1 mac.

Yet, the battery life on the MacBook seems to be around 10-15% better based on my casual use of the Framework 13 so far.

• MacBook Pro 2019 (13"): 58.2 Wh lithium-polymer battery
• Framework 2023 13": 55.0 Wh (upgradeable to 61.0 Wh)

I'm not a pro in running battery diagnostics, but there's a chance that this may be due to the unknown daemons running from installing Ubuntu and the Omakub toolset. Or it could just be the efficiency of the underlying OS or chips.

If I extrapolate my usage, I can see that using the laptop (the way I use it) without charging during the day would bring the state of charge to close to 5% by the end of the day. That's mainly for writing, browsing, and occasional light coding.

For now, I'm not complaining as the difference is not heaven and hell. But again, worth noting!

Screen hinge is firm enough and doesn't wobble

This was another one of my concerns -- MacBooks have well engineered laptop hinges that ensure stability even when the user types like a mad person.

To this end, I'm glad to report that the hinge doesn't wobble despite being said mad person.

3:2 aspect ratio is very good for writing and coding

The aspect ratio of 3:2 gives me more vertical real estate for reading long code files and online articles, unlike MacBooks' 16:10 (what?) ratio.

Ubuntu has built-in 'Night light' to reduce blue light

One thing I failed to look up before buying the laptop, but would have been a major downer if it wasn't a feature, is the equivalent of MacBooks' 'Night Shift.'

It's a software-level tinting of the display so that the light emitted are warmer and less blue. Too much blue light gives me eye strain. It also reduces the quality of my sleep if I use the computer in the evening.

Thankfully 'Night light' is a built-in feature of Ubuntu!

Conclusion so far

Now to wrap up, here's my conclusion based on first impressions: Framework 13 DIY Edition (Ubuntu) is a solid replacement for a MacBook Pro!

I bought my last upgraded-spec MacBook Pro 2019 (13.3") for SGD $3,200 (2,240 EUR):

• 58 Wh battery
• Retina display, 2560 by 1600 resolution
• 32 GB RAM
• 512 GB solid state drive

By comparison, I bought my Framework 13 2023 DIY Edition (13.5") with the following specs for just 1,280 EUR (about 1,000 EUR less!):

• 55 Wh battery
• Matte display, 2256 by 1504 resolution
• 32 GB RAM
• 1 TB solid state drive

So, for the few downgrades, I'm paying 1000 EUR less - money that I could use if I wanted to fix a broken keyboard, replace an old battery, or upgrade the mainboard.

9/10 first impression.