My nephew just graduated high school, and wants a laptop. When he decides what computer to buy, price (or more precisely, value) is the most important attribute. Apple's MacBook Neo upended the 'value laptop' equation—Apple's not supposed to be both the cheapest option and the best value... but it seems like that's squarely where the Neo landed for the good-but-cheap laptop category. My nephew is also my godson, and to kick off his computing journey, I thought I'd let him choose from a Framework 12 I bought to test, or the MacBook Neo I bought a couple months ago to use around the studio.
  • onlinepersona@programming.dev
    2·
    13 hours ago

    Kids like being cool and trendy. Much more than adults (don’t believe me? Go to an opensource conference and count the macs). Anything from the fruit store has been successfully marketed as lit (or whatever the kids say these days). And Geerling, for all the good he does, doesn’t care about spyware, lock-in, monopolies, or big tech. He’s a pragmatist. Whether that means his godson in “the land of freedom” ends up in the walled garden or not isn’t any concern to him.

    Of course the nephew chose the Neo.

  • Senal@programming.devEnglish
    15·
    1 day ago

    I’ve always thought of the value proposition of the framework as being it’s capacity for upgrade.

    You should obviously start from a level of compute that meets your requirements, but the additional cost for the framework was always the price of the ability to change out parts later (at the very least the idea of it)

    It feels like an apples to oranges comparison but with the only success criteria being the things an apple is designed for (pun intended).

    If performance to price ratio was the only criteria they are interested in , the framework shouldn’t even be in the race.

    • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
      9·
      21 hours ago

      Not only upgradeability, but repairability, being able to swap components, and the general open nature of the hardware.

      Less e-waste and Linux compatibility are nice, as well.

      • Senal@programming.devEnglish
        1·
        22 hours ago

        I agree, in my mind repairability is implied by the ability to upgrade but that isn’t always the case.

        These have both.

    • Bhaelfur@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      1 day ago

      Exactly. I bought my Framework solely because it’s so easy to swap parts. I got burned by a bad Lenovo Legion, and I wanted something I could actually repair (and was designed with that in mind.) Excellent Linux compatibility didn’t hurt, either.

      • UnpledgedCatnapTipper@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        4·
        1 day ago

        I got it for the repair potential, the ability to swap port modules, and to support the idea behind a repairable/upgradeable/modular laptop. I’m still hoping for better 3rd party module options to become a thing, but even if they don’t I still think the extra cost was worth it.

  • curbstickle@anarchist.nexusEnglish
    5·
    23 hours ago

    Its hard for me to justify framework for a variety of other reasons, but the value proposition was always upgradability / diy options in the first place. That said I’d rather go with a thinkpad right now or an MNT if I wanted to support open design.

    I’d still love to get a pocket reform, but I’ve got 3 thinkpads, 2 of which have had some big upgrades/repairs, and another on the way. At the very least the T/P/etc series are great for repairing and upgrading. Even third party extras are pretty common.

  • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
    5·
    1 day ago

    My nephew is also my godson

    I read that as ‘my nephew is also my grandson’ at first … and it brought up some questions, lol!

    • misk@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      5·
      21 hours ago

      iBooks were nowhere near as performant as contemporaries because they ran on IBM PowerPC CPUs which were showing their limitations already (it was the driving force for switch to x86 in 2005). 1999 starting price for G3 iBook was $1600 ($3100 adjusted for inflation), Neo is $600. Jeff Geerling is 40, he probably remembers.

  • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
    1·
    1 day ago

    this is a bit off topic but I wish framework would make a dumb keyboard screen that you could plug into hosts. Manufacturers of these price them way high because the demand for them is mostly in data centers but man I have wanted something like that for awhile and I kinda figure they already have the case and such. just need like a part that gives kb and trackpad out along with video in. Heck might be nice to have wireless to.