Hi all. I’m looking to get a Framework laptop mainly to support the open source movement. I’m not a tech geek, I’ve never used Linux, and I mainly use my laptop for internet and Adobe creative suite. Other than that, I don’t have many constraints. Which laptop should I buy?
I think you should buy a Framework Laptop.
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Sorry, I couldn’t help myself, if you could tell us more about what you are looking for in a laptop (how much power do you need, do you need battery life, display quality, display size etc) we can help you choose.
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This should be secondary to your primary use cases… Primary use cases is to use a computer as a tool to complete ‘some tasks’. So, back to what Destroya was saying, need more info.
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The largest consideration between the Framework 13 and 16 is going to be the screen size you would like. After that you can look into if you need an internal GPU or not, how portable you want your laptop to be, how many ports you want, do you want to have a numpad, etc.
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Your post suggests to me you are best served by an old Thinkpad. It has your best chance of running niche OS such as Haiku, BSD, 9Front, GNU/Hurd, GNU/Linux out of the box, more so than Framework whose features are not yet supported by all free OS.
More importantly it is a low cost way to see if an open source OS suits yourself without being left with an expensive machine gathering dust if it does not work out. You can switch to Framework if you succeed with transition. What are you migrating from?
As for the recommended OS, why not try Haiku which is making leaps and bounds as a user friendly OS?
Well following from above replies, unless you have a problem with weight or finances then the 16" I would imagine is better for ‘creative’ tasks ~ visually.
On the ‘open source’ issue you have the OS and apps to consider so you may be interested in Ubuntu OS > Creative Suite
And ‘open source’ in terms of software is not the focus of the Framework, but more the ‘open-ness’ of the physical build. A far more attractive buy. I can change the OS in a moment but having a physical machine that is user friendly is the overwhelming attraction of Framework.
The 13" is simpler and lighter.
It isn’t clear from your post if you want to use Linux or not. However, just in case you were unaware, Adobe tools do not run on Linux.
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- Money. If you can afford it, go for the best.
- Size. What do you need? Personally, it could a lot of guts for me to be straight with myself & tell myself “You don’t need that numpad. STOP IT!” so I stop buying big laptops.
- Easy to lug around. For a clulmsy person, I find the 13" easier to move since despite loving my things, I have been known to break stuff when under stress.
- Specs. My last laptop lasted me 11 years & then it started crawling after which I gave it to my cousin who still uses it to this day. So I try to make sure I go with slightly higher than average specs. I admit this is something I deliberately spend extra on. So I went with i7 & 32gb.
- Do you need a graphic card? This is my PSA to most of us. You don’t need a graphic card. Stop it. You know you don’t then why you wishing for it. It will make it heavier for no reason. It will also consume more battery life…again for no reason.
- How long you are going to keep it for? If you keep for longer, you can justify the expensive purchase. Otherwise - once again - be honest with yourself.
However, you said you want to support the open source movement. I have ZERO idea about that.
If you feel my points don’t make sense, feel free to ignore my suggestions.
Also any feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
Gud luck !
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