You will own nothing and be happy about it.
No, he actually said “There is a very real scenario in which personal computing as we know it is dead.”
Welcome to headlines lying to your face
There has been a spitfire of such deceivingly titled articles being posted here within the past couple of days.
There is a very real scenario in whichpersonal computing as we know it is deadI guess that’s technically what he said, just not all of it. 🙄
So essentially contextomy.
“Anyone who thinks murder is okay is an evil person.”
“
Anyone who thinksmurder is okayis an evil person.”Headline: “Local madman says murder is okay.”
I fucking hate this, but in the age of tiktok and instagram, it’s a serious problem. I’m afraid to speak in public because soo many things can sound really bad with all the context removed. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to take a principled stance without exposing yourself to that risk.
And then when I say “that’s taken out of context and twisted to sound way worse than it is,” people hit me with the “cOnTeXt DoEsN’t MatTeR!!1!1! tHeRe’S nO wAy To JuStIfY wHaT yOu SaId!”
No way to justify how it sounds out of context, but if you hear it within context you’ll understand that that’s not even what I was saying in the first place.
But people don’t care about that. They care about ragebait, content, and engagement. And tech giants can manipulate algorithms to smear anyone who’s too vocal against them…
Anyone who says context doesn’t matter, probably isn’t worth wasting your time with the discussion.
If that scenario comes true I will change careers from Computer Science and become either a blacksmith or a woodworker. I am entirely serious.
Become a blacksmith, supply the revolution with cool swords.
Swords are awesome, but not very practical against drones and bullets.
Like, a cool sidearm to have as a backup as long as it doesn’t get in the way. A dagger might be less obtrusive and still get the point across. But swords these days are good for three things: reenacting, sport, and display.
Maybe decades post-apocalypse when blackpowder is in short supply they’ll be more practical. Unless we have laser guns already at that point…
Tangential thought: I wonder if a heavily polished sword can reflect laser beams like in star wars… 🤔
i want one of those curvy swords please
Which kind of curvy sword? Flamberge? Saber? Scimitar? Khopesh? Bahuandao?
Be a blacksmith, make your own hardware!
(just need reaallly tiny tools)
I have an alt proposition: why not look into projects like FOSSi or FSi? It’s trying to address the hardware side of computers (chip production) but HW design goes all the way up to programmers and SW optimizations.
Side note: making silicon wafers requires metallurgy, so you can always become a modern day “blacksmith” (or graysmith, in this case;)
Yeah… I received the email teasing their upcoming announcement.
Here is the text in full for the context:
We’ve spent the last six years in Framework proving that it’s possible to build high-performance, thin, light computers that last longer and respect your rights through repairability, upgradeability, and customization. We’re happy to see repair rapidly becoming the norm rather than the exception, with even Apple of all companies embracing it on their latest notebook. I built this company specifically to reset and fix a broken industry. So, mission accomplished? Not quite. There is a very real scenario in which personal computing as we know it is dead.
Memory, storage, silicon, and everything related to it is being consumed at unprecedented levels in a “winner takes all” race to an AI-first world in which access to compute is metered by the token. It’s clear that the fundamentals of computing and electronics have changed. The computer in the cloud has increasingly greater economic output than the computer in the hand. This means that to the extent that there are constraints on the supply that feeds both, the cloud will win every time. We see this in the rapidly rising costs of silicon and all of the devices that depend on it, the shift from ownership to subscription, and the rise of closed black boxes over an open ecosystem. What does this all mean? The industry is asking you to own nothing and be happy. Computers are no longer a bicycle for the mind. They are becoming the self-driving car that takes you directly to the destination.
You might be reading all of this and thinking, is this a farewell letter to personal computing? Is this the end of Framework? No, this is a manifesto. No matter how inevitable the AI-takes-all scenario may sound, as long as there is a person in the world who still wants to own their means of computation, we will be here to build the hardware that enables it. That means computers that you can own at the deepest level and do what you want with, whether that is choosing your OS, modifying your hardware, or even just keeping your data and computation local rather than leased from the cloud. We won’t get there all at once, but we will always be fighting for a future where you can own everything and be free.
Every step we take and every product we ship serves that goal. With that, we’re happy to announce that we have our next live launch event coming on April 21st at 10:30am Pacific time in San Francisco. During the event, we’ll be streaming our announcements live to the Framework YouTube channel. You can subscribe and get notified when the stream goes live. We can’t wait for you to see what we’ve been working on.
These products are for you, so we’re opening a batch of invitations to the Framework Community so you can meet the team and get hands on with our newest products. Having community members at our event last year was a lot of fun, and we can’t wait for you to join us alongside press and partners. If you’re a Framework fan and are in the San Francisco area (or are able to handle your own travel to us), you can apply to attend in this sign-up form. We expect we’ll see a lot more interest than we have available seats in our venue, so don’t wait to get your application in.
We have one other update for you ahead of our launch event, which is that our products are now available to ship to four additional countries: New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and Singapore. You can start ordering everything we have in-stock now, though you may want to wait until the 21st to see what we’re announcing!
For a hint at what we’ll be announcing, head to the event page.
I refuse to own nothing. I will not be happy about it. I will have freedom.
Didn’t Apple just launch a $600 laptop?
Edit: everyone made a bunch of really great points. Mine was more about addressing the affordability angle of a dying Personal Computing.
Apple is part of the problem
You’ll need to be more specific.
can it run Linux?
Can it? Yes.
Will it? Almost certainly.
Is there something you can install right now? No.
Officially supports 3 distros and supports more with community support.
Its $500 for students
Now, if only they considered not sponsoring nazis… https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/14/framework_linux_controversy/
Between Framework at least trying to build an open ecosystem, there are very very few other options out there. Yes they can probably do better, still they are effectively the only decent open option (for me at least) at a reasonable price and quality.
Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t call them out though.
They’ve been called out. Boyhowdy have they been called out. You can’t mention “Framework” on Mastodon without someone chiming in to tell you about all this and try and shame you into not considering a Framework machine. I think they have been sufficiently called out.
Given that there are multiple replies from people that had not been aware…
I wasn’t aware, but I’m not that familiar with the Framework organization. All I knew was that their laptops are easily upgraded.
Sucks because I was strongly considering Framework for my next laptop. That said, it sounds like they may rethink their sponsorship approach with that bit at the end - they acknowledged the past issues with the Hyprland community but did due diligence, and they plan to involve the community more going forward.
May be empty promises but time will tell.
They’re literally just sponsoring one of the biggest wms out there, I don’t feel like that’s abt framework, rather then hyprland/vaxry
What’s the excuse for omarchy? It’s completely irrelevant.
I don’t like omarchy either, but for several months it was one of the biggest things bringing new users to linux
I rather doubt that… I wouldn’t even know it existed if framework hadn’t sponsored it.
I think it was bc it was a simple, easy way to get the cool part of linux ricing without much necessary knowledge of linux. But it was definitely huge for at least several months
what computing company hasn’t sponsored nazis?
its not a black and white decision
I think people saying this is not a problem are downplaying the fact that framework actively decided to support a project with problematic political tendencies at highest role - allow me to be that unconcrete did not read through the entire thing. However I think looking at other manufacturers I see nothing comparable in it’s reach that is really a community focused manufacturer. Microsoft straight up supports trump, so do many of the others. I think running lenovo depends on these same programs (correct me if I’m wrong).
To;Dr: Maybe fascist? idk. But the others support same organisations. Don’t they?
Something about no ethical consumption under capitalism. Perfect is the enemy of good. I agree what they shouldn’t be supporting Nazis and that we need groups willing and able to counter the small selection of oligarch owned manufacturing systems.
Tenuous at best.
Follow the money and see when it starts getting uncomfortable for you.
No, it is not. It will never happen until the open source world will keep that relatively conservative mentality
The headline doesn’t match the article, they said personal computing was at risk of dieing.
Hah. Common PC hardware is still overpowered in 10 years time. Let’s see where OpenAI is by then.
… isn’t Framework one of the companies that should aim against such a future?
That’s…what this article is saying…?
