I have just ordered my Framework 13 Ryzen 7. I have a few questions that are specific to this model, and to Linux Users. I have looked through existing posts but, am very aware of how quickly things change, and some of the posts relevant to me are not current.
Which Linux Distro and version is the most compatible - I want to install Linux but, don’t really mind whether I use Fedora or Ubuntu (or which version). I would like the best ‘out of the box’ experience as possible and as few issues as possible going forwards.
My 2nd important issue is power / power efficiency. I only ever connect to the power for charging. The rest of the time, I run my laptops on battery. And in my case, I run all my devices on solar power, via batteries. I always shutdown, and rarely use sleep. But, based on the best distro and version for this laptop, I also would like to know the best way to optimise power efficiency (of the various options - TLP etc.) - most of the time, I am a light user - no games, just email, libreoffice etc. And would charging via USBC all the time be OK for the battery? I have a dell cable that I was intending to use capable of 100 watts.
I generally don’t use more than a couple of usb ports - 1C and 1A in daily use. I was thinking of only connecting other expansion cards when needed - would inserting / removing them a lot cause failure from the additional wear and tear over time? Perhaps long term framework owners could advise?
Does using the SSD expansion card use a lot more power than an internal SSD? I was intending to install a power efficient Hynix Gold P31 that I already have and is hardly used. I have ordered a 1tb expansion card as well and was debating whether to use that for an occasional use Windows install or for data.
Any other advice, for me as a new owner?
I am really looking forward to getting my laptop. I decided to get a Framework because I have a few older laptops that are easily repairable and upgradeable but, was finding it really difficult to buy a new laptop that met those same criteria. Even recent refurbished laptops often have this issue (and for me, it is a huge issue).
I have a fw 13 with Ryzen 5 and I’m booting it with Zorin Os.
And its working really great out of the box, just the usual issues you see with linux machines like fractional scaling being one of the major issues I stumbled across.
Battery life is about the same as when I had windows 11 booted, somewhere around 6-8 hours of battery life on power saver mode with light workloads like reading stuff on blogs or watching a few videos.
I also rely a lot on batter power, so it has been a struggle when I actually need to work on something heavy. contemplating upgrading my battery to the 61wh if possible
Pretty much anything that has a recent kernel (atleast 6.8 but newer the better in most cases) works. But if you want choose between the official supported distros, I personally prefer Fedora as it updates the kernel and few other crucial parts like a “rolling release” although with more testing before pushing to stable.
If you just want something that you don’t need to “upkeep” you could take a spin with Bluefin (www.projectbluefin.io) or Aurora (www.getaurora.dev). Those are based on Fedoras Atomic spins (silverblue / Kinoite) but handle all the “setting up” things mostly during the install without user intervention needed. They are really solid and handle updates in the background and provide on easy way to boot to an older deployment right from the boot screen if something would go wrong. The biggest difference is that graphical apps are handled with flatpaks (through flathub).
TLP is not recommended with the AMD and you should default to the power-profiles-daemon that comes pretty much by default on ubuntu/fedora etc.
Charging through usb-c is the only option anyway (you need a brick capable of PowerDelivery standard)
The laptop can do pcie gen 4 but gen3 is a bit slower but more power efficient. You mentioned “Hynix Gold P31” which is gen3, so a good choice.
The next item is RAM. The more ram, the more power it uses. Choose as little ram as you think you can get away with.
Screen refresh and brightness. Set to a low refresh and low brightness as you feel comfortable with.
keyboard leds use 3W power, so switch off keyboard leds during the day
you mentioned you run off laptop battery most of the time. It is slightly more power efficient to leave the laptop plugged into external power all the time.
keep an eye on cpu temps and watts, and adjust you usage to keep those down. E.g. some web sites use more cpu than others. Turning on add blockers will reduce power usage.
both Ubuntu and fedora are well supported and work equally well and will run apps like libreoffice just as good as each other. You can run Windows in a qemu/virtmanager/virtual machine if you wish. No need for a separate disk for it, thus saving power.
things like powertop help you to see where power is being used, but bear in mind some of the setting cause instability if set to “good”. E.g. keyboard problems, missed keys, unwanted repeat keys.
About number 3, the only issue with not expansion cards in the slots is that now you have to deal with the sharp edges of the empty slots. I have not seen any wear and tear and I switch my expansion cards fairly frequently
I bought the expansion card with a view to installing Windows on it as dual boot. But, others think it would be better to use it for data and dual boot on my internal SSD. I could use it for backups as well, possibly?
Very useful to know that about turning down the keyboard leds as I will mostly use the laptop during the day and would only need the minimum brightness.
Thanks for this. I would prefer to use Fedora if it is as well supported as Ubuntu. And I will definitely switch off the keyboard LEDs unless I need them.
Thanks to all of you for all that really useful info. All I need is my laptop to be delivered and I will be ready to set up m laptop and also now to optimise it for my specific use. Hopefully it will be here soon!
Re Robin’s reply re battery power, I asked ChatGPT before placing my order and it thought that the Ryzen 7;processor with the larger 61watt battery would be more economical in light use than the Ryzen 5 with a smaller battery. I would be interested to know your thoughts on that?
I decided on the 5 because I thought it uses less power than the 7, as well as being cheaper. I dont really need the power of the 7 yet for most of what Im going to do. I think chat gpt may have dropped the ball on this one
