Linux Mint and Framework Laptops Join Forces
Linux Mint and Framework Laptops Join Forces
Linux Mint partners with Framework Laptops, aiming for full compatibility with easy-to-upgrade, high-quality laptops for Linux users.
The October 2024 edition of Linux Mint’s Monthly News brings exciting updates, including a significant announcement about collaboration with Framework Laptops, having potential to advance Mint’s compatibility with hardware designed with flexibility, repairability, and sustainability in mind.
For those unfamiliar, unlike most traditional laptops, which are often difficult or impossible to repair or upgrade, Framework laptops are built to be user-friendly, making it easy to replace or upgrade components. This modular approach extends the laptop’s lifespan and promotes sustainability by reducing e-waste.
This is wonderful
linux laptop space is getting a competitive market. having vendor support makes it easier to advise people to make the switch./
The story hypes this to be a bit more than this is.
Framework sent a laptop to the lead Mint dev. He’s going to try make sure it works well with Mint, but it already does.
The more low key framing straight on the Mint blog is here:
Over the last ten years, the number of distributions I would recommend to beginners has narrowed to basically Linux Mint Cinnamon and Fedora KDE. Mint if you want good UX and easier time managing packages, Fedora KDE if you want Wayland to actually work.
Wayland?
Difficult to concisely explain what Wayland is.
Software in the Linux ecosystem tends to be built on earlier projects. You may be aware of the various Desktop Environments like Gnome, KDE, Cinnamon, xfce, etc. Something they all have, or had, in common was they all used a truly ancient piece of software called X11. This is the Windowing server. Most of the look and feel of a desktop environment comes from a configuration file that sets up X11 to work a certain way.
X11 has been a standard for longer than Linux has existed, it dates to the early 80's. It is quite old and isn't capable of keeping up with some newer technologies like multiple monitors at different framerates, HDR, there are problems with things like Freesync, etc.
Wayland is a project for replacing X11 with a newer system designed with modern display technology in mind. It works a little differently, and it breaks compatibility with a lot of long-standing systems, but it's now in use by several DEs by default. At the moment there are technical reasons to use Wayland and technical reasons to use X11.
This is great news!
Mint is my choice of weapon when it comes to desktop Linux and I have been eyeing the Framework 13 for quite some time now.
Great news!
actually phenomenal sentence to read on my screen
I ran Fedora on my Framework when I first got it, a couple years ago, but the battery life and sleep behavior was just awful. Love Linux on desktop, hate it on a laptop. Should I revisit?
If you have an original Framework (from memory, 11th gen intel 13 inch), there were hardware issues that I don't thing could be resolved via software updates. I believe they worked in them for the intel 12th gen and later.
I run a fedora derivative on an original framework, and I used a command to disable sleep and go to a deeper state (hibernate maybe?) so it doesn't lose battery while asleep. And if you take out your HDMI, display port, etc cards and just use USB (or none) that resolves another power drain issue.
But basically, it's usable but not perfect. I'm waiting to see if there's another gen of AMD card coming then might update my mainboard.
I dunno, I like it as a laptop but I'm also seldom far from a charger.
Does anyone else have issues loading articles on linuxiac? Every time I open a link to an article there CPU usage spikes like crazy, firefox bogs down, and gives me a wait or kill page dialog.
Funny thing is, most of the pages work better on mobile with 3rd-party scripts and frames blocked by default. This one too.
I can't wait for the budget framework to come out, 1 because current lineup is expensive (well, more than I'd like to spend on a laptop. I'll run my shitty 2018 Microsoft Surface Pro 6 into the ground), but 2 because the product will be even more polished by that time.
Can't wait to have a laptop and then just have it for like 10 years. Especially if it's Linux out of the box 👍👍