We have a roundup of assorted announcements and updates for you today across every part of Framework. First, we’ve seen incredible progress over the last year in gaming on Linux. That spans ease of setup improvements, title compatibility, and also performance, where some titles at this point perform better than on Windows. We’ve published a deep dive blog post that goes into the current state of gaming on Linux and what distros we recommend checking out. Especially with memory and overall silicon pricing reaching unreasonable levels this year, a 32GB Framework Desktop running a distro like Bazzite ends up being a strong price to performance value for most games relative to pre-built Windows desktops or even DIYing a gaming rig.
Also on Framework Desktop, we’ve seen a ton of advancement in the maturity of the local machine learning use case, driven by both teams at AMD and efforts across the community with tools and frameworks like LMStudio and llama.cpp. The team at AMD just published a blog post digging into how to set-up a cluster of Framework Desktops to run colossal 1 trillion parameter models locally, letting you keep ownership of your data and privacy. We’re also starting to see a number of Framework Desktop users across the community playing with Openclaw to run autonomous agents locally, again with full control over data and privacy. The team at AMD is working on making this use case smoother, with documentation and blog posts coming soon.
We have a handful of community events coming up shortly. First, we have a livestream on our YouTube channel this Friday, February 27 at 2PM Pacific with our Director of Device Software, Kieran and our Founder and CEO, Nirav to talk through firmware, product architecture, open source software, and more. You can submit any questions you have ahead of time through the form here. We’ll also be at two events in the next few weeks. First, we’ll be at SCALE 23x, one of the largest Linux community conferences in the world, in Pasadena from March 6th through 8th at Exhibitor Hall B, #418. Next, we’ll be at Collabora’s booth at Embedded World in Nuremberg from March 10th through 12th at Hall 4, 4-404.
We have a few availability and product updates too. First, we’ve finally completed the massive number of pre-orders we received on Framework Desktop systems and Mainboards, and are now in-stock on all configurations. We’re also in stock on most configurations of Framework Laptop 12, Framework Laptop 13, and Framework Laptop 16, along with most items across the Framework Marketplace. Over the last few months we’ve accumulated enough B stock and return parts at our North America service center to bring back Mystery Boxes. These continue to sell out almost instantly each time we stock them, so we’ve slightly increased pricing from the last stocking.
Finally, we’ve seen some wild projects and products emerging from the Framework Community over the last few months. DockFrame is building a much requested accessory: a modular USB-C hub that leverages Framework Expansion Cards. We’re seeing the first projects come out of the One Key Module developer program too. One of the most impressive is HandyWork, a series of ergonomic keyboard layouts for Framework Laptop 16. If you’re working on a project using Framework parts or our open source CAD and code releases, we’d love to see it. Start a thread in our Creators & Developers forum or tag us in your social posts, and we’re happy to help provide feedback and visibility.