I am a soon-to-be computer systems engineering major (specializing in AI and robotics), I learned about framework from Googling “Nirav Patel” after having read “The History of the Future,” which chronicled the beginnings of Oculus and @nrp’s time there (highly recommend). Seeing YouTube become a viable VC platform gave me the confidence to commit to the long-term viability of the company and resolve to purchase the laptop that I have earnestly supported but couldn’t pull the trigger on responsibly.
If you’re in that boat right now, please realize that was and is faulty logic: Framework won’t succeed if their target audience waits for them to succeed and expand before they’ll support them. If you’re on the fence for reasons other than your own financials, please seriously consider this before deciding whether to walk away. Even if Framework folds and you lose the opportunity to upgrade components like the mainboard, you’ll still have the most upgradeable and therefore long-lasting, and therefore affordable (cost/time avg.) laptop ever available. That’s worth a lot in my book.
(Sorry, brevity is not my thing. Severe ADHD.)
Enough evangelizing; I’m supposed to be introducing myself, not Framework. I suppose I’m too much of a ‘Blue Shirt’ at heart, lol.
I was introduced to Python programming by my dad when I was eight, and have been learning the language on and off since then (a lot more recently). My best friend got me into PC building when we were twelve, which led me to watch every Nvidia keynote since 2015, and consequently become very interested in AI and the future that industry would create, which led me to choose a very specific educational path and to set the goal of obtaining my Ph.D. at age 25.
Now that I’m about to set out on that path (moving to attend school next summer), I’m just overwhelmingly grateful for the past couple of years. Grateful to have had great high school memories and participate in great programs like FBLA and my IT internship; that my dad lost his super-stable job at the onset of Covid and that we were forced to move from the only city I’ve ever really known and come to upstate NY; that I was able to develop habits and skills and to tinker with workflows in ways I couldn’t in more constrained circumstances; that I’m in a position to move back to Phoenix and gain a great education and that I love learning; that I have an illness (Cystic Fibrosis) that gives me motivation and perspective in life; that I have the ability to learn quickly and opportunities to learn and utilize new or interesting tech like 3D modeling and printing, which allow me to realize my ideas, as well as Linux, that gives me complete control over all these computing experiences on the software side, and Framework, who do the same on the hardware side. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I’m glad to live in a time and circumstance and world where Framework exists, where so much computing can be done for free online that even AI students like me can choose a thin-and-light like theirs and that I’m especially grateful that we have economic systems in place that allow brilliant people like Nirav and others to build a team, product, and company for people like us, even in a catastrophic global disaster, and I hope it becomes something much bigger than just this community here now.
Thank You, @Framework, you bring me so much hope, and your timing couldn’t have been better.