Asklemmy @lemmy.ml flashgnash @lemm.ee 1 mo. ago

People with framework laptops on linux (nixos?) what is your experience with them?

Have been keeping half an eye on framework laptops as a potential next daily driver as and when I'm ready for one.

Just wondering what people's experience of using them on linux has been, particularly nixos

I'm assuming all the drivers are in the kernel given the way the company is

Have been using a 2016 thinkpad for the past year or so and have had a decent experience with it, with the way lenovo have gone with their newer thinkpads it seems like framework is now the best for maintainability/upgradability

(not planning to upgrade in the immediate future as this machine is doing fine, but frameworks are a strong contender in my mind right now and I'm curious as to people's experience)

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Honestly? Not that good. My favorite computer hardware I've used period, no competition. I like the design, the keyboard is fantastic, and the build is very high quality. Seeing it online doesn't do it justice. That aside, the Linux experience? It's been straight up bad. I bought this computer for school. it ended up being around $1300.00 which is absolutely not cheap by anyone's standards (easily 3x as expensive as any laptop I've ever bought) but then again this is the first current gen computer I've bought as well. The first week using it was pretty good, actually. I've been using Ubuntu which is officially supported for this framework by the Ubuntu devs. Fast forward to week 2, the wifi stops working. Mind you, I'm using this FOR SCHOOL. The computer will connect to wifi no problem for the first few (literally maybe 3) minutes but after this the wifi will disconnect and will straight up refuse to work unless I restart the entire computer, and even after I do the problem will occur again in under 4 minutes. Doesn't matter if I turn wifi off and back on in the quick settings or restart the wifi services in the terminal, no dice. I tried updating the kernel, etc etc etc. in order to get any of my school done I did literally have to restart my entire computer 3-5 times for every single class or for any time I wanted to use the computer. Again. $1300 computer I bought SPECIFICALLY FOR SCHOOL. The insanity of having to drive to my school and use their computer lab and work around the hours that the computer lab is open after spending that much on something is infuriating to me. I asked on Reddit, the best advice they could give me was replace the wifi card (Framework AMD) as 'mediatek is crap' which I thought should not be necessary. So I ate $20 after just spending $1.3k and bought one of the compatible intel wifi cards and for a few days, I though the issue was solved. Fast forward a couple of weeks and I still have to restart the computer 2-4 times per day. I'm just so sick of troubleshooting something every single day, and more than that I legitimately don't have the time anymore even if I did have the energy. I believe in the concept and see the vision but I don't have the time in my life to spend 2+ hours tinkering and troubleshooting and fixing something every day, (especially on an OS that is officially supported by the manufacturer and OS maintainers, mind you). I plan on wiping the computer and installing a different officially supported OS and if this does not fix the issue, I will be getting in touch with framework to ask for a refund.

P. S. - I'm sure this might be a duh thing when it comes to Linux on laptops but the battery life is not that good. It hasn't been absolutely horrible, but I also haven't been measuring it outside of "will this get me through the day" nor have I been doing much heavy work on it beyond the regular. I have not found the battery drainage issue to be a problem for me personally , although I have noticed it drain some especially after a couple of days. But if you leave it alone for a few days with a decent amount of charge it's not going to be dead when you go to use it.

Edit: I also cannot for the life of me get my drawing tablet to work with it even though I have the drivers installed, but this could be a Linux issue.
- I think you should try a full reinstall it sounds like something's just borked in the install, otherwise get in contact with them and get a refund/send it in for them to look at it that's what supported means
  
  Also Ubuntu is kinda overrated nowadays anyway, you should absolutely try something else before giving up on it.
  
  Gonna get hate for saying this but if you don't want to tinker and you just want a working machine you should probably just put windows on it, at the very least if it still doesn't work then you know it's 100% a hardware issue and can get in contact with framework
  
  Self managed Linux is not a good plan for people who have zero interest in having to fix anything themselves
  
  I tried using windows one afternoon and almost shot myself.
  It's obviously subjective but it is not for me. If anything I'll go back to macos if it doesn't work out. It's not that I "have zero interest in fixing anything myself" I just can't spend 8+ hours a week troubleshooting things that should work out of the box on a $1300 computer. On top of school full time and my job. Hopefully I'll get the time to do a reinstall this week. Being able to browse the web seems like the bare minimum.
  
  I read the last part of your comment in a nerd voice.
  
  Entirely fair I am a nerd
  
  My experience of Linux has been that it needs a certain amount of tinkering to function properly and my experience of people who make statements about supported configurations is that they are not willing to put up with that
  
  Agree with that windows is a horrible user experience by comparison but it's the most likely to just work and be supportable
  
  I am an obsessive thinkerer. For me thinkering means tewaking you installation, get plugins, run weird scripts to do weird stuff. Wasting time kf real work to fix your wifi is not thinkering, it's just frustrating
  
  Yeah to be fair I agree, I've been having an issue with suspend on my current laptop which I decided to just ignore in the end cause it was frustrating me so much
  
  Though installing other people's random scripts and plugins is a good way to get an unstable broken system
  
  Nixos is great to still be able to fiddle while staying stable given you can just boot an earlier install if you fuck up, also throwaway dev shells with temporary installed packages. Might be worth giving it a go

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