Framework has just come out of the gate roaring and delivered a LOT of essential things the community has been asking for for long. One of these is the new OCuLink kit which uses OCuLink 8i for a connection with high-speed to connect, for example, external Desktop GPUs. Now, I personally come from a community that has been asking for this for close to 3 years, and you can see the whole story here. Literally, for years, we have been organising, waiting, discussing, and have had setbacks. People tried and failed, people took money and disappeared, people met up over weeks to develop makeshift solutions (yes, involving bent cables and yes, even taping things together inside the laptop - and it worked!). So my point here is to say that the OCuLink kit that was announced now shows an absolutely incredible capacity of a company that is thrilling to see: they listened.
It was the community that showed Framework what can be done, it was the community that kept pushing, and it was the community that arrived there first. This thread is to tell the story, so that it gets the appreciation it deserves. Yes, Framework in my opinion is still a fantastic company - but it was the community that got there first - and this will always be the case.
I am also writing this for another reason. @Filip was mentioned in tech news because it was him who developed the OCuLink 8i board first. He deserves the credit. And if you could criticize Framework in any way - then it would be for not giving him the visibility that he deserves. I leave this for discussion.
So the overall story is that it was the community that pushed, that a company listened and delivered, and ultimately that there are some mixed feelings. Still, it is so amazing to see that a company has the capacity to listen to this extent, and to deliver such a product.
UPDATE:
So, the most important aspect for me was the actual interaction with @Filip , and he just clarified in the other thread that framework mentioned to him long ago that they were working on an OCuLink kit. So this, in my personal opinion, makes it pretty flawless from their side.
Story remains the same: Framework went from “This probably isn’t something we would build ourselves” to building it in 3 years - through interaction with the community. It is absolutely awesome that a company is able and willing to develop their view and interact like that.
