Framework is the high-performance, thin and light notebook that’s “designed to last” with modular components along with a commitment to make it easy to repair and upgrade.
It went up for pre-order back in May and it’s now actually shipping out in batches, with dates depending on what configuration you order and when your order goes through with the next set being readied for shipping in October. One of the fun things is the Framework DIY Edition, which comes without an operating system and you get to build the laptop yourself. Framework emailed out today to mention how “There has been immense interest in this configuration, with it outselling pre-configured systems with Windows 10 by a wide margin” and that they’ve been working with developers of Fedora, elementary OS, NixOS, and Arch to make the Linux distros work nicely.
Linux support for the Framework Laptop was “decided from the start” and so they made sure to use components well supported with drivers available. However, there’s a few parts that need very up to date Linux distributions to work with as they explained “Intel 11th Gen Core Processors, Intel AX210 WiFi (which is optional on the DIY Edition), and our Goodix-based fingerprint reader are the three items that require a newer kernel or packages than many distros currently ship” however everything else including “speakers, microphones, headphones, webcam, hardware privacy switches, keyboard media keys, ambient light sensors, and all of the Expansion Cards should work completely”.
They also gave an overview of where a few distributions stand with it right now:
Ubuntu
Our hardware is too new for the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS release. In the meantime, we recommend using Ubuntu 21.04. This is recent enough to be fully functional out of the box with the exception of the fingerprint reader. You can follow the instructions provided by Davis_Ladd in the Community for guidance on how to get that working.
Fedora
Geoff Marr, Matthew Miller, and others at Fedora have been helping us get excellent support. Our WiFi is too new for the default Fedora 34 images, but if you can plug in external networking, you can update your packages to get a newer kernel and libfprint to get everything working including the fingerprint reader! An alternative is to download a Fedora 34 Respin image, which has these updated packages already. We expect Fedora 35 to be fully functional out of the box when it launches later this year.
Arch
Foxboron at Arch has a pre-production unit and is helping us with support there. You can check out the thread on the Framework Community and also the page on the Arch wiki for more detail.
You can also see their dedicated Linux Forum for more info.
An exciting idea that I really hope properly takes off with more companies.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
