I’m hoping we can be totally clear about the new Chromebook board:
Where it is explained that this board is only compatible with the Chromebook edition. What does that mean? Is this addressed anywhere?
In other words if I have a framework laptop now, and want to move to a Chromebook, how much of this system gets wasted?
Your answer is in the launch blog post I believe. I know for a fact that the fingerprint reader is not compatible and some other bits as well.
That’s really the concern I’m trying to get at. It was not addressed in the blog post. And I feel like given parts replacement is the premise of the company, it should have been. I am hoping that I’m wrong when I interpret this to mean Framework changed their Frame so this new board wouldn’t fit.
I feel like this blog post is truncated. There’s mention of reducing waste at the very end, followed by nothing about this concern.
Physically it is compatible, it may have been on a linked hackernews thread that I read about incompatibilities. Really it’s a question of driver support, not physical compatibility. I know the Windows/Linux keyboard won’t have properly functioning function keys.
Pulled from the Chromebook product page, it’s purely software compatibility
So it seems that Nirav has confirmed details on y-combinator.
The chromebook edition runs coreboot instead of the insyde BIOS, has no fingerprint sensor, the top cover is made with the older formed-aluminum method, and there is a new speaker system.
Searching more through the y-combinator thread, he also confirms details about upgrading a current Framework to the chromebook (particularly that there seems to be a different webcam needed for the chromebook mainboard)
However, the chromebook keyboard is compatible with the standard mainboards, which means that the standard keyboards may be compatible with the chrome board?
looks like there are incompatibilities that require the touchpad and webcam to be different
That’s all the details I could find, but I think it would be nice if Framework could work on pooling all this info together and making a post on this forum for all the people who want to know these details. It would make a lot of people happy to have all this info clearly laid out instead of having to hunt through a separate forum’s post.
Yep, we’ll be writing up some Knowledge Base content with more detail on this. It requires some detail, because there are basically two levels of compatibility:
As a concrete example of this, purely physically and electrically, you can take a current 12th Gen Intel Core-based Framework Laptop and swap just the Mainboard for a Chromebook Edition Mainboard, but:
Each one of those things are items that can be resolved by picking up the relevant Chromebook Edition module from the Marketplace.
Glad to see you’ll be clarifying things. I totally understand that there are lots of complicated differences between the two, so hopefully everyone is able to be patient for the full compatibility list on the Knowledge Base! Thanks for working hard to answer everyone’s questions and keeping up the transparency in communication.
Aren’t Chromebooks most popular with students, who are notoriously rough on their computers? Maybe the bottom cover should be CNC milled as well to improve the ruggedness.
Is it possible to replace the regular mainboard of framework laptop with a framework chromebook mainboard and keep everything else the same?
I am asking because I desire coreboot which chromebook has and intel me disabled same thing. And I would want to run legacy, meaning run linux off of it.
This being said, I don’t know how difficult it is to activate developer mode and then relax settings for that to work.
I have installed text mode linux distros before in case you are curious how much I know about linux, etc…
Also install third party android on a phone before.
Feel free to answer me whenever.
Btw, not sure where this company originates.
Unfortunately, the chromebook mainboard also requires a few other parts to be replaced for compatibility. I believe it’s just the webcam module and the touchpad, but be aware that you will also not be able to use the fingerprint reader, as the chromebook version also has a power button with no fingerprint reader. There is also a specific chromebook keyboard, which I believe has been proven to not be necessary, but you won’t have the chromeos specific functions that that keyboard has.
aha found the post that has all the details:
Would it be good for what I wanted it for though? and if not, which parts would I need to buy separately to move to the new format.
Btw, fingeprint reader, touchpad and webcam are stuff I don’t use primarily anyways. I detest webcam and microphones but also touchpads are in between the annoyance of webcam and microphone. 
I myself prefer trackpoint or if not, a mouse.
But yeah, would it be good for my purposes is a question I need answered.
looks like getting linux onto the Framework chromebook is indeed possible
I have not personally done this nor do I own the Framework Chromebook, so someone else will have to respond to the feasibility of it.
that said, if you don’t need any of the hardware on the webcam module (webcam, mic, ambient light sensor, etc) or the use of a trackpad or fingerprint reader, then yeah, all the other components are exactly the same, and you can just swap the mainboards no problem.
the chromebook mainboard does indeed use coreboot, though I don’t know if they also disable intel me.
Also to answer your last question, Framework is an American company, headquartered in San Francisco
@zapdust , as someone who recently used MrChromebox’s guide to wiping a Framework Chromebook and installing Linux - why wouldn’t you just install Linux on the board you have?
In that article I discuss the steps I took to convert my Chromebook board to Ubuntu, but it’s not without annoyances or inconvenience.
To me, it just seems unnecessarily complicated to buy a new main board just to wipe it and struggle with the small annoyances I’m going through 
I started with a Framework Chromebook, but I’d would’ve rather had a standard Framework configuration and installed Linux myself.
As stated, he wants coreboot, which the Chromebook board has and no other
That’s it. I do not trust the stock bios and I do hear that intel me is separated from the chromebook bios. Not sure how or why though.
Unless it becomes possible to flash coreboot onto Framework laptop 13 in future.
Actually a question occurs to me, do both framework laptops allow adding whatever wifi card you want? I ask because sometimes the bios has a whitelist lockdown function. I assume framework is lax about this, but I felt I should ask.
Also wondering, if I can ask for boot guard and intel me to be disabled on ordering a device. I know coreboot isn’t an option yet though.
You won’t be able to ask for ME and boot guard to be disabled on sale. Best yes, you may use the WiFi card of your choice
I assume that is true until they hire someone trustworthy to do that procedure, due to them not wanting to screw things up and cause problems for their customer.
Unless I am mistaken, I have to wait, am I right?
Those are different for compatibility with ChromeOS. However @zapdust plans to install Linux instead. Afaik it’s unknown if it will work, but I suspect it probably will (especially since the webcam is just a USB webcam and the fingerprint reader is just a USB fingerprint reader).
