Iāve been using my Framework 16 for about 4 days now and I absolutely love it. I built mine from the DIY-edition without reading any of the instructions just to see if I could do it and I was shocked at how self-documenting and intuitive the whole unitās modularity truly is. One of the party tricks Iāve been showing off on my live stream and to my friends and family is live swapping the keyboard and macro pad around switching sides. People are just blown away seeing a laptop do that without any tools involved and to be honest I also enjoy this very much. However, I didnāt even think for a second that you could also move the touch pad on the bottom. I thought you had to have the little covers on the side since they didnāt have any connectors above them. Welp, that was a bad assumption because yesterday night I was doing my little keyboard and macro pad swapping trick and accidentally pushed in the touch pad too far over to the right directly under the keyboard and it snapped into place and worked. I was completely shocked! I then slide the two little blanks that were on the side both into the slots off to the left of the touch pad segment and it all fit flawlessly and now my touchpad is perfectly centered with offset keyboard which not only makes my OCD super happy but also makes it, so I donāt accidentally keep touching the pad while typing!
In hindsight it should have been obvious that if you can move the peripherals on the top you could also do the same with the peripherals on the bottom but I never thought to do it for some reason. Maybe I should have RTFM but I truly wanted to see how easy it would be with just what was written on the laptop itself and the included tool. This is honestly one of the best thought out devices Iāve ever seen and it blows my mind that nobody else has thought to make a fully modular laptop like this before.
Let me know below if you also didnāt realize you could move the touch pad to one side or the other and didnāt need it perfectly in the center with the little blank out plates on either side. I honestly was shocked when both little plates just popped into place next to each other to cover the blank space. Iām now tempted to try and 3D print some custom color block out plates or plates with little recesses in them for macro notes, etc. Honestly, this Framework 16 laptop isnāt just the best laptop Iāve ever owned in terms of build quality & configurability but it makes me look at the laptop in a whole new light entirely.
Also, finding the 3D printable cup holder module for the Framework on printables also made me laugh out loud and donāt think for a second that I didnāt consider actually printing one
Oh, one more thing, you guys are the best community ever! Iāve enjoyed reading tons of posts on here and contributing to the PSVR2 post where people have been trying to figure out how to get the PSVR2 working properly on the Framework 16 and we finally got it figured out together and it works amazing! Looking forward to hanging around these parts for a very long time since I donāt see myself changing laptops for a good long time. And honestly, thatās the point of owning a Framework right? So you donāt have to keep buying new Laptops since you can just keep upgrading like a desktop PC which is how it should have always been! I know there have been some laptops like CLEVO I think they were called that were highly configurable but it required a lot of tools and still was pretty limited by comparison and the quality quite frankly was trash! I had one back when PugetSystems was exploring selling custom laptops back in the day and even they decided not to sell them in the end because they couldnāt get the quality to a place where they were comfortable. But, this framework feels like a brick and doesnāt have any flex at all to it. Framework has clearly done their homework and listened to feedback because this thing is a unit!
Okay, time to head downstairs and format my Razer Blade Pro 17 and throw a fresh copy of Windows 11 on it so I can gift it to my 14 year old son as his first PC laptop since Iām not a Framework nerd!
I wonder if it would be possible to create a track pad module that was the full width of the laptop with a D-PAD & flat analog stick like a Nintendo Switch on one side and an array of buttonās on the other side for playing various different types of video games. It would be hilarious if someone 3D printed some grips that stick on the bottom of the Framework so you could wrap your hands around the edge and have the worldās biggest handheld gaming machinesā¦ Is it a silly idea? Yesā¦ Would it be a fantastic way to market how configurable it isā¦ Hell yes! Or, how cool would it be if someone designed an analog stick that could fold up out of the module with a thin little shaft for playing flight sims? Just thinking outside the boxā¦ Or, perhaps, big speaker arrays to give it surround sound? Iām not sure what level of connectivity is available to the peripherals that connected to the top surface of the laptop but given that RGB keyboard works Iām going to guess itās at least a USB type connection which would be more than enough bandwidth for all these things.
I like to setup multiple layers like a StreamDeck and use one layer for pasting things that I use a lot like common emotes () and have another layer for changing scenes in OBS Studio when live streaming or another layer for 10-key when entering numerical data, etc. I also like that you can bind the keys to media keys like volume up and down making it easier to access without having to hold down function and press another key. Itās pretty much infinitely configurable. You can even impalement mouse movements and actions too. I only wish that the keys themselves were little screens instead of RGB like a real StreamDeck. I hope at some point they make a module that is a little touch screen that can do something like that instead of the RGB buttons because I would love that so much. In the meantime, I just change the color scheme and layout depending on which mode itās in so I can memorize and know which mode itās in before I start hitting buttons and the wrong things start happening. Itās also nice to have a layer dedicated to navigation like up down left and right arrow keys and mouse clicks so you can push the button instead of clicking on the pad which just feels more satisfying to me. But, Iām still experimenting around to figure out what other cool stuff I can do with it.
if you look at the spacer modules by the touchpad (specifically their undersides) you will notice they have no electrical connectors whatsoever (i.e. the computer doesnt even care if they are present, much less where they are)
its more about the trackpad module having its connector going over a (physically AND electrically) free connector. there is documentation online about it (i think there is a limit, which is that the touchpad module can only go directly under or one slot to the right of the keyboard - see the following diagram for how i think it works)
~ = position of keyboard module
_ = position of touchpad module + = position of spacer (or part of a two-spacer-wide module)
~++
_++
or
~++
+_+
or
+~+
+_+
or
+~+
++_
or
++~
++_
with no other configurations working (but i could be wrong)
Nice to see you here, Barnacules! Ever thought of doing a video on the FW16? Wondering if you and Dave (from Daveās Garage) ever bumped into each other at MS, or was it different times?
I plan to make a video review of this Framework 16 in a few weeks once I finish putting it through its paces and my physical health improves a bit more. Iāve sadly been laid up in bed a lot lately. Ironically, this Framework 16 has been perfect for this scenario since I can do most things from bed when I canāt make it up to the Nerdcave. I canāt wait to start editing video on it also since it runs DaVinci Resolve like a boss!
As for Dave from Daveās Garage, I think we only overlapped our careers by about a year since I started on Feb 14th, 2000, and I think he left in late 2000 or 2001 if I remember correctly. We never formally met face to face, but we were on email threads together at Microsoft since he worked on OS components that I tested in the HCL/WQHL lab. Sadly, we had a little falling out on social media over political differences, and he unfollowed me. We havenāt talked since. But I really like his content on YouTube, and I think heās a very talented guy. Sometimes people just canāt agree to disagree on things, and I have to respect that. Thanks for responding to my thread. Iāve really enjoyed my time here on the Framework forum, and itās the most interactive experience Iāve ever had with a community surrounding a piece of hardware Iāve owned. Itās really refreshing, and I absolutely love the open-source spirit going on here.
@CauseOfBSOD, first off, I love your name! I was trying to figure out what you meant by the touchpad not having any electrical contacts. I pulled off my trackpad, and it has a finger with 8 pogo pins on a pad for power and data, just like the RGB keyboard uses and the macro pad/10-key uses. It does look like the touchpad can only go on the bottom and the keyboard has to go on the top because the touchpad electrical contact finger goes up while it goes down on the keyboard and other accessories since they all seem to need to connect in the middle of the surface where the line of connectors are. But there are quite a few connectors that would support a ton of different configurations, and Iām not sure what bus they are using through the 8 pins, but Iām guessing itās some kind of USB since itās delivering power for RGB to the keyboard and allowing the keyboard to connect like a USB keyboard would. You could probably make custom modules that would snap into place just like the existing ones and work. It would be cool if someone made an integrated Stream Deck where itās like a flat screen off to the side of the keyboard that is fully programmable, but again Iām not sure what the bandwidth is on the connection they are using for these peripherals and if it would be enough to drive a screen like a Stream Deck has.
I absolutely love that I can rearrange the keyboard and touchpad to my heartās desire without any tools and without having to power down the unit. I think it would be pretty cool to 3D print a replacement plate for the touchpad that doesnāt have anything on it at all except for maybe a textured surface for people who like to use an external mouse instead of a touchpad and donāt like having their wrists touch a surface that isnāt perfectly even. That might be a project I take up down the road for fun. Or, how cool would it be if Framework made a set of planar magnetic flat speakers that are flat and made them modules that go in on the side of the touchpad to give a surround-like experience? Not sure how good the acoustics would be working with such shallow depth, but it might be cool.
Itās weird that some products encircle a community. Framework is one, and I was part of System76, There are also cars and certain electronics (especially vintage computers and audio/video gear).
Hope you get better soon. Very interested in your take of the FW16, as well as any projects you plan to do with it.
Thank you so much @Techie_Zeddie! My plans for the Framework 16 is to give me more autonomy with my health issues by allowing me to edit video and even live stream from bed when Iām stuck laid up from my back issues, so I donāt have to keep skipping live streams. I love how portable & powerful this Framework 16 is, and I love the 4:3 aspect ratio screen which makes it feel a lot bigger than it actually is given the size of the laptop. I feel like the screen is even more usable than my Razerblade Pro screen which is a 17" laptop with a 16:10 aspect screen.
I absolutely love the Framework community and have really enjoyed my time here. This is probably the most active forum for any open-source product Iāve ever owned and everyone seems to be really nice and accepting. I am shocked by how uninviting some communities can be in the tech space, especially when it surrounds a product that is more targeted towards ānerdsā who have a tendency to be a little arrogant at times. Iāll even take responsibility for being a part of the problem myself at one time when I had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. That dies down with ages though.
Iāve never played with System76 personally. Iāll have to give it a try since Iāve really only played with Ubuntu, Debian and Mint over the years and my Linux skills are incredibly rusty at best. But I really want to start embracing open-source operating systems more since Microsoft likes to act like they love open source and they are all about it with their WSL2 feature, etc. But in reality, they are doing some pretty shady things that compromise peoples security and itās getting even worse 24H2 coming up soon with the AI based screen recording feature that is on by default and hard to disable which is ultimately going to cause a lot of pain for people when that data gets breached as we all know it will be.
Linux just isnāt quite there yet in terms of support for gaming and the applications I use but itās getting closer every day. My only big worry is that Microsoft is going to keep buying up all the gaming studios and only releasing the games form the studios via the XBOX / Microsoft marketplace where they shut Linux out of the picture entirely. Short of that I really think that Linux is going to be a 1st tier gaming operating system within the next few years. I know that most of the Steam library now runs under Linux and I know that things like WINE have got a lot better and hardware virtualization and passthrough can get you like 90% of the performance of bare Windows which is more than enough for most people and what they do with a system.
My biggest fear moving to Linux as my primary operating system is losing all the experience I have with Windows that makes me very comfortable. Iāve used Windows all my life and even worked at Microsoft on the Windows project for 15 years of my life so itās really hard to walk away from all that experience with batch scripting, windows scripting host, automation, etc. But, with WSL2 bridging the gap and Linux able to host Windows VMās it really isnāt the problem I make it out to be. I think Iām just stubborn honestly and at the end of the day if I just committed to dropping Windows as my primary operating system and took the time to setup a proper Linux setup with the passthrough features that I needed I would be in better shape overall. Maybe I should put a little more priority on that given that Microsoft is getting way too deep into pushing AI onto people before itās ready and I truly do believe itās going to lead to some massive breaches in privacy that ultimately ruin peoples lives.
Thanks again for responding to me here on the forum, I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to me. Itās a pleasure talking to people on this Forum and itās one of the few Forums where I like the layout and how it flows. The auto complete for peoples names when responding and the real-time formatting preview is super helpful. Some forums are just a total pain to do anything with which is why I usually end up not staying engaged on them.
Thatās where Iām at as well. Iām a Windows System Administrator by trade. Since I still need to work on Windows Servers at work, I donāt really have to at home. My personal computers are now on Fedora 40 for the most part (also have one on Debian and PopOS to keep myself sharp on other distros), and I try to game as much as I can on Linux (which is mostly what I use my computers at home for now).
For everything else, I find myself on my Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+ (browsing, banking, administering my network, YouTube, etc). I find that I can do most of what I used to do on a laptop with an Android/iPad tablet these days. Itās hard to switch over as Iām so used to upgrading computers and laptops incessantly and now Iāve end up with so many parts and full machines that I donāt know what to do with them (so I use them for testing Linux distros now).
For my main gaming PC and my FW16, I have both Windows and Fedora installed, but I find myself booting mostly into Fedora. I rarely boot Windows - only for the occasional Windows-only applications or games, but part of the addictive challenge is to find alternatives for them in Linux. I already can do most of my work in Linux as well (Zoom, web-based apps, RDP/Thincast, etc), but I chose to stay with Windows because it would look weird to our Security team if I am constantly logging in with a non-company issued Linux session.
As with anything, I need a goal to learn something. Earnestly trying to replace Windows completely is what made me stick with Linux and eventually learn it. Iām still a newbie, but I know way more than I expected I would when I started. Itās more intimidating that not.
For you (since youāre probably a DOS-head like myself), you should try Arch Linux on a spare machine. Try installing it the manual way (not using the script). Youāre not compliling anything, and its not really all that complex if you already have some knowledge of DOS and OS configuration. Youāre basically partitioning, configuring, and downloading packages. But the process will give you some insight as to how a Linux distro is āput togetherā.
Or, how cool would it be if someone designed an analog stick that could fold up out of the module with a thin little shaft for playing flight sims? Just thinking outside the boxā¦ Or, perhaps, big speaker arrays to give it surround sound? Iām not sure what level of connectivity is available to the peripherals that connected to the top surface of the laptop but given that RGB keyboard works Iām going to guess itās at least a USB type connection which would be more than enough bandwidth for all these things.
) and have another layer for changing scenes in OBS Studio when live streaming or another layer for 10-key when entering numerical data, etc. I also like that you can bind the keys to media keys like volume up and down making it easier to access without having to hold down function and press another key. Itās pretty much infinitely configurable. You can even impalement mouse movements and actions too. I only wish that the keys themselves were little screens instead of RGB like a real StreamDeck. I hope at some point they make a module that is a little touch screen that can do something like that instead of the RGB buttons because I would love that so much. In the meantime, I just change the color scheme and layout depending on which mode itās in so I can memorize and know which mode itās in before I start hitting buttons and the wrong things start happening. Itās also nice to have a layer dedicated to navigation like up down left and right arrow keys and mouse clicks so you can push the button instead of clicking on the pad which just feels more satisfying to me. But, Iām still experimenting around to figure out what other cool stuff I can do with it.
