Comparing to just building a desktop, I don’t think you can easily build one that isn’t officially supported on linux…?
The unified memory is the only part of this machine that can’t be had for way cheaper with a custom build, and it’s interesting only for super niche reasons anyway.
Plenty of hardware won’t work on Linux. Especially new hardware. Sometimes there are issues with WiFi, Bluetooth, audio, graphics, etc. So it’s nice to know that if it’s not working that the device is, in fact, not functioning as intended and that the company that you purchased it from will help make it right, rather than just saying “ah no one cares about Linux, sorry!”.
It’s hard to build one that you can’t make work, but a lot of manufacturers don’t actually officially support it. It’s a minor point, but one I care about – especially when dealing with new hardware. I’d have wasted a lot more time trying to debug what was going on with Mint if they hadn’t documented the need for a 6.11 kernel on their website, for example…
lot of manufacturers don’t actually officially support it
Huh???
Intel and AMD CPUs are officially supported in the linux kernel… AMD’s official graphics driver is part of the linux kernel. NVIDIA offers official graphics drivers for linux, although they are proprietary.
I’d have wasted a lot more time trying to debug what was going on with Mint if they hadn’t documented the need for a 6.11 kernel on their website, for example…
6.11 kernel
So… in other words… it literally is supported by the linux kernel…
I was thinking of motherboards. Some of my systems have really fucking annoying power problems. If I can’t get this thing to suspend properly, for example, I can go back to Framework and try to get them to fix it. My cobbled together desktop? I’m on my own.
The only thing I could see being an issue with a desktop motherboard are built-in wifi, bluetooth, or sound chips, and that’s really not been an issue to worry about for years. Complete non-issue for any Intel chipsets, which are basically all officially supported. I think otherwise I really only see like Realtek, which is supported. At worst you just need to install proprietary drivers.
Sounds like framework’s motherboard has poorly implemented ACPI, but this would not be an issue for manufacturers for typical desktop hardware (ASUS, ASRock, MSI, Gigabyte)
I’m not complaining about Framework’s HW there; my old desktop (which uses an ASUS MB, IIRC) had that issue. I’m on my own figuring out WTF is going wrong between the CPU, the kernel, quirks of the motherboard, BIOS, GPU – or whatever else might be causing it to enter a boot loop if I try to suspend and then resume the system.
If I had a similar problem with the Framework system, I could go to Framework and say “Fix it!” and expect to get help because they officially support the configuration. That’s my point.
Last two mainboards I bought had incompatible wifi cards. The first of those also had some weird issue with aspm that meant it ran hotter than it should have needed to.
Comparing to just building a desktop, I don’t think you can easily build one that isn’t officially supported on linux…?
The unified memory is the only part of this machine that can’t be had for way cheaper with a custom build, and it’s interesting only for super niche reasons anyway.
Unified memory is very AI friendly which is not irrelevant these days.
No one said irrelevant. Running local AI is extremely niche though
Perhaps, but if one is privacy conscious, that’s the way to do it. That is also one of the reasons people like Macs.
Anything to do with AI is inherently irrelevant.
Plenty of hardware won’t work on Linux. Especially new hardware. Sometimes there are issues with WiFi, Bluetooth, audio, graphics, etc. So it’s nice to know that if it’s not working that the device is, in fact, not functioning as intended and that the company that you purchased it from will help make it right, rather than just saying “ah no one cares about Linux, sorry!”.
Maybe this comment would have been accurate 10 years ago.
Would you like to explain? That’s been my lived experience with only a handful of devices.
It’s okay to concede that Linux isn’t perfect.
It’s hard to build one that you can’t make work, but a lot of manufacturers don’t actually officially support it. It’s a minor point, but one I care about – especially when dealing with new hardware. I’d have wasted a lot more time trying to debug what was going on with Mint if they hadn’t documented the need for a 6.11 kernel on their website, for example…
Huh???
Intel and AMD CPUs are officially supported in the linux kernel… AMD’s official graphics driver is part of the linux kernel. NVIDIA offers official graphics drivers for linux, although they are proprietary.
So… in other words… it literally is supported by the linux kernel…
I was thinking of motherboards. Some of my systems have really fucking annoying power problems. If I can’t get this thing to suspend properly, for example, I can go back to Framework and try to get them to fix it. My cobbled together desktop? I’m on my own.
The only thing I could see being an issue with a desktop motherboard are built-in wifi, bluetooth, or sound chips, and that’s really not been an issue to worry about for years. Complete non-issue for any Intel chipsets, which are basically all officially supported. I think otherwise I really only see like Realtek, which is supported. At worst you just need to install proprietary drivers.
Sounds like framework’s motherboard has poorly implemented ACPI, but this would not be an issue for manufacturers for typical desktop hardware (ASUS, ASRock, MSI, Gigabyte)
I’m not complaining about Framework’s HW there; my old desktop (which uses an ASUS MB, IIRC) had that issue. I’m on my own figuring out WTF is going wrong between the CPU, the kernel, quirks of the motherboard, BIOS, GPU – or whatever else might be causing it to enter a boot loop if I try to suspend and then resume the system.
If I had a similar problem with the Framework system, I could go to Framework and say “Fix it!” and expect to get help because they officially support the configuration. That’s my point.
Last two mainboards I bought had incompatible wifi cards. The first of those also had some weird issue with aspm that meant it ran hotter than it should have needed to.