I think I found one that has the pins. It's by OWC and I think they've "solved" the fact that it can be dangerous if the wrong thing plugs into it by permanently tethering it to their USB-C cable.
I have a caldigit ts3 I got from work that works well with the framework. Looks like it only does a max of one 5k or two 4k monitors. They have a new one (caldigit ts4) that appears to work up to 8k.
If it were me (and I didn’t get the dock free from work) I’d just buy and test a few cheap amazon docks then return the ones I dont like.
The dock works great under most circumstances. The issue that i have, which was listed by others in reviews for many different docks, is when connected through my KVM. It takes forever to sync up and drive my display. By forever, I mean 30+ seconds most of the time, and occasionally I have to disconnect the cable, open the laptop lid and then reconnect the cable.
Yeah, I have a 4 port KVM. One for my work issued Surface laptop, one for my mini-pc, one for my Framework 13, and one for any computer that I'm troubleshooting. I'm thinking about moving to my Framework fully and changing the mini-pc into another node for self-hosting setup.
Is coreboot for framework actually being worked on in earnest? My googling only turned up that one guy was doing some basic work on it but only as a concept.
The Chromebook editions use coreboot already, it shouldn't actually be too hard to get it to work on all editions (for Framework). I guess they just have other plans currently.
The Chromebook version comes with coreboot because that's a requirement for all Chromebooks. It would be nice if all editions had that, but IIUC the Chromebook's motherboard is also a bit different.
So, I took the advice of @steal_your_face and got the caldigit ts3. I had to grab a displayport to hdmi adapter since I don't have displayport cables.
So far, I have the display working at full 3840x2160. It struggled at first, but eventually Fedora got it working without any changes. I did have to unplug and plug in the usb-c cable. Mouse and Keyboard recognized without issue. Audio through the dock to the screen to speaker is working. Mounted and worked with files on usb drive, no issues. Videos played off the usb drive fine.
So, in short, it works as expected, no extra setup/config required.
and edit the config at /etc/tlp.conf to optimise your battery
the instructions are in the file iirc
basically set your CPU settings (I use powersave on my intel non-framework), and maybe have a look at the radeon graphics things (I don't have an amd system so I can't say much about this)
and refresh your config with
sudo tlp start
if you also get powertop (sudo apt install powertop) you can monitor your power consumption in that. (sudo powertop)
If you can't be bothered with this, I think you can also just install power profiles daemon but I like tlp better because it gives you much finer control over your system
It basically immediately caused my laptop to freeze up and I had to hard reboot it. I took the opportunity as it was coming up to remove the 80% limit in the BIOS, and then I commented everything I had uncommented. :/
Is the Framework company only staying afloat because of investors, or are they profitable selling laptops and their parts? I'm concerned about their longevity if they constantly need investor's cash injections.
4 years in can still be a bit early for a startup to have to prove profitability before deciding on its fate. I'm willing to give it up to 10 years but where it would ideally show an iterative improvement up to that point with regular loss reduction over time. 4 years should give some sense on whether profitability is reachable I think, though I'm not financial analyst so my words are just a stranger's two cents.
I hope they have lasting power. I'm totally committed to my Framework laptop and would be sad to see the company go away because their business model doesn't work for whatever reason.
They need to get into the phone game. There are no major players in North America who offer anything close to a Fairphone, and that could boost revenue, especially in a world where people are trying to find greener solutions.
The phone industry is very competitive and I don't know if there is enough for framework to compromise with to make modular/user repairable phones both viable as a business model and a distinguishing factor. I hope to be proven wrong by all means!
Fairphone doesn't appear to be struggling, and I'm certain that Framework could do 100% better than them. The laptop market was highly competitive before Framework, but they found a market that is forward-thinking, and I think we do need that in phones (which tend to be replaced more often than computers).
Just imagine if governments incentivized green manufacturing in this industry - they would be at the top of the list of desired brands!
Mh, I wouldn't be so sure about Fairphone not struggling (I do wish them the best, typing this on a FP5) I saw some numbers a while back and they were shockingly low ... Of course I can't remember now but it was something like 30k profit in a year?
But I do hope Framwork does last long likewise would love to purchase one of their laptops at some point.
They do post their financials, so I'm sure there's an explanation. But I don't think they are nearly as established as Framework, despite the company's age.
I think the problem with Fairphone is they are closed off to a very small market. You can't grow, or be a leader in any market, if you're restricting yourself to Europe only.
I would be more than happy to give my money to either Fairphone or Framework before spending more on another Samsung phone that has planned obsolescence built in as a feature. But, I can't unless I import it and be stuck with not being able to actually get parts like the product is intended.
id love to see them manage to turn their standard into an industry standard. like asus and gigabyte making motherboards and video cards for their products.
There's a difference between needing money to stay in business and needing money to expand. It tastes a lot of money to release new products or ramp up production of existing ones. I've seen way larger companies fail at doing so.
Needing more money from investors isn't inherently bad and it's normal for new companies. If you start a new company you won't have money to do everything at once, so you do everything in stages. Framework has completed the last stage of their plan and now needs more money to complete the next stage of their plan.
You can't even buy a Framework laptops in Sweden, China, Korea, and most countries really. Given how demand has consistently outpaced supply I wouldn't be to worried about it.
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