Google has announced their new Chromebook Plus program. This page confirms that the Framework Chromebook will be getting those updates! Pretty slick if you ask me.
The info on the Chromebook Plus program is here: Chromebook Plus: more performance and AI capabilities
That’s pretty rad. Could totally see myself recommending the FW CB to older relatives.
I’ve been using my FW Chromebook for about 1.25 years, and it has been fantastic. Please pass along to the Chromebook product manager that you should continue to support Chromebooks going forward, even if they aren’t a high-volume product. It will probably be a while before I need to replace the motherboard or components, but it is nice to know I can. I had a Google Pixelbook. When I shattered the screen, it was game over but the device was otherwise fine. The fact that my FW now supports Chromebook Plus is awesome. Thank you!
I used to work professionally with Pixelbook deployments in enterprise. One problem I know the FW 13 and CB model don’t have is charge protection. Plug a MacBook USB-C charger into an original Pixelbook? Boom, dead. We had hundreds of them die at Salesforce, but with the Framework you won’t have to worry about that.
The pixelbook requested more voltage from the charger than it can handle?! That sounds pretty wildly out of spec to me.
I would agree there
So the pixelbook asks for something it can’t handle? I can almost not believe that’s real.
I saw enough of them in STACKS laying dead in the Salesforce IT room back when I worked there that I know it as a fact. Regardless, I’m happy the Framework Chromebook doesn’t have an issue a multi-billion dollar company ignored.
This would be a prime target for “Chrultrabook-ing” and running Linux with a free Coreboot bootloader: https://docs.chrultrabook.com
So it went like this?
Pixelbook: Hey charger what you got?
Charger: Hello, I got 5v 3a, 9v 2a, 12v 2a, 15v 3a and 20v 4.95a
Pixelbook: Could I please get the 20v 4.95a?
Charger: Sure here you go
Pixelbook: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
And you can even upgrade it to a keyboard with no missing keys XD (might need ec modding though). My og c720 chromebook is still kinda running despite everything I did to it but the missing “windows” key really is kinda annoying.
Even if you use the stock Chromebook keyboard, per those docs I mentioned, you can use the Search key as Super and remap other keys easily.
Sure you can remap keys but that won’t put the key in the right place. Similar to the cursed chimera iso on not quite ansi layout asus and consumer hp uses here, the keys are technically there but in really weird places and in the wrong shape.
But before the framework came out I was looking at high-end chromebooks for my next laptop cause they did tend to be significantly more open than the windows laptops but they were hard to get here and I stumbled onto a really cheap t480s.
I wish that Framework Chromebook edition have features of touchscreen.