Andrew Cunningham
Since Framework confirmed off its first prototypes in February 2021, we have usually been followers of the corporate’s modular, repairable, upgradeable laptops.
Not that the corporate’s {hardware} releases up to now have been excellent—every Framework Laptop computer 13 mannequin has had quirks and flaws that vary from minor to fairly important, and the Laptop computer 16’s upsides wrestle to steadiness its downsides. However the {hardware} principally does a superb job of functioning as an everyday laptop computer whereas being rather more tinkerer-friendly than your typical MacBook, XPS, or ThinkPad.
However even because it builds new upgrades for its programs, expands gross sales of refurbished and B-stock {hardware} as finances choices, and promotes the re-use of its merchandise through exterior enclosures, Framework has struggled with the opposite aspect of computing longevity and sustainability: offering up-to-date software program.
Driver bundles stay un-updated for years after their preliminary launch. BIOS updates undergo lengthy and complicated beta processes, preserving customers from getting characteristic enhancements, bug fixes, and safety updates. In its group assist boards, Framework workers, together with founder and CEO Nirav Patel, have acknowledged these points and promised fixes however have remained inconsistent and obscure about precise timelines.
However in response to Patel, the corporate is engaged on fixing these points, and it has taken some steps to deal with them. We spoke to him concerning the causes of and the options to those points, and the corporate’s method to the software program aspect of its efforts to advertise repairability and upgradeability.
Guarantees made
This is a working example: the Twelfth-generation Intel model of the Framework Laptop computer 13, which prompted me to start out monitoring Framework’s software program and firmware updates within the first place.
In November 2022, Patel introduced that this mannequin, then the newest model, was getting a pleasant, free-of-charge spec bump. All 4 of the laptop computer’s recessed USB-C ports would now develop into full-speed Thunderbolt ports. This wasn’t a dramatic useful change, particularly for individuals who have been principally utilizing these ports for primary Framework growth modules like USB-A or HDMI, however the improve opened the door to high-speed exterior equipment, and all it will want was a BIOS replace.
Andrew Cunningham
However the BIOS replace by no means confirmed up. Almost a 12 months and a half later, Framework’s assist web page for that Twelfth-gen Intel laptop computer nonetheless says that there’s “no new BIOS accessible” for a laptop computer that started delivery in the summertime of 2022. This factory-installed BIOS, model 3.04, additionally does not embrace fixes for the LogoFAIL UEFI safety vulnerability or some other firmware-based safety patches which have cropped up within the final 12 months and a half.
And it is not simply that the updates do not come out; the corporate has been unhealthy about estimating once they would possibly come out. That Twelfth-gen Framework BIOS additionally does not assist the 61 WHr battery that the corporate launched in early 2023 alongside the Thirteenth-gen Intel refresh. Framework informed me that BIOS replace could be out in Might of 2023, and it nonetheless hasn’t been launched. A battery-supporting replace for the Eleventh-gen Intel model was additionally promised in Might 2023; it got here out this previous January.
Framework has been making an attempt, but it surely retains working into points. A beta 3.06 BIOS replace with the promised enhancements for the Twelfth-gen Intel Framework Laptop computer was posted again in December of 2022, however a ultimate model was by no means launched. A newer 3.08 BIOS beta entered testing in January 2024 however nonetheless gave customers some issues. There’s been no communication in that thread from anybody at Framework since early February.
The result’s a number of lengthy discussion board threads of annoyed customers asking for updates, interspersed with not-untrue however unsatisfying responses from Framework workers (some model of “we’re a small firm” is among the most typical).
