I am waiting on my framework laptop in batch 4, and am psyched about getting it and trying new things with a real, modern machine. I was planning on 2 USB-C ports on the left, with HDMI and USB A on the right. the two on the left got me thinking though. how close is the spacing to matching the direct-attach type-c dongles (My own, made-up term for the products like the one at the link below).
I get that the idea of framework is to get rid of dongles but the tight integration of these “dongle bars” seems right at home in the framework ecosystem. I’ve seen mentions of dock concepts and bottom mounted connectors but I think an absolutely fantastic idea is a dock that utilizes two Type C/TB4 ports at the same time to provide more expandability for something like a home workstation.
Its not like using two type C ports simultaneously is new or non-conventional either. my work laptop is a Dell Precision 7550, and at work it has a double Type-C/TB adapter to a dock to power monitors and peripherals (Granted this might just need it to power the Quadro RTX 5000 and 8c16t i7).
once I get my laptop I might get the “dongle bar” adaptor designed for macbook’s as well and see if the spacing differencebetween Apple’s type c ports and framework’s modular type c ports could be compatible, and if you could skew one (or both) of the type c modules slightly forward or back to get things to line up. I don’t have the resources to prototype it from there but maybe someone else does?