[n0ric]

I'm having a hard time imagining the audience for this product. EDU most likely isn't going to go with this product due to cost (and can get easily complex, imagine trying to juggle all the expansion ports being lost by students), and typical audiences for ChromeOS devices don't always overlap with audiences who want easy repairability (and most likely are purchasing the device for the lack of nuances that other OSes provide).

[washadjeffmad]

I'm on a $150 Chromebook from Costco right now because it has a really nice display for text, it gets 8 hours of battery life at full brightness, and there's nothing I do that I can't do on another computer, somewhere else.

And somehow, this thing got my attention. I don't have any interest in their traditional PC laptop line, but I've been waffling over buying a Pixelbook for years because dealing with Google Support is worse than entering a contract with a devil.

If it helps you reconcile it, Framework doesn't do bulk or business orders right now, anyway, so the target demographic is only individuals.

[JadeNB]

> there's nothing I do that I can't do on another computer, somewhere else.

Is that a misplaced "can't"? (Something like "there's nothing I can't do that I can do on another computer, somewhere else"?)

[resoluteteeth]

Maybe they mean "there's nothing I can't do by sshing to another computer when necessary"?

[washadjeffmad]

Bingo. This is a dumb terminal that does some wifi calling, thanks to Google Fi.

[rch]

Christmas gifts for my parents. I've had them on Chromebooks for the last few years, and my father is a tinkerer (Western Electric in the 70s) who routinely opens up laptops, phones, cameras, etc. for repairs or just because.

[comprev]

"just because" is a great personality trait to have (in the context of learning more) and I'm thankful my father had the same attitude.

When I was a child we used to disassemble mechanical/electrical things around the house simply because I asked "How does that work?". On occasion the reassembly didn't quite go to plan and a replacement kettle/toaster/VCR had to be sourced rather swiftly :-)

[geek_at]

I also gave all elderly people a chromebook/box because it's so much easier to manage and much harder to break / make slow

[refulgentis]

People are sleeping on how awesome Chrome OS is. It really is awesome. The 2020 equivalent of 2005 OS X vs. Windows. From there, Linux container. It's mind-boggling to me because I switched _off_ Apple the last 5 years after realizing how powerful it is to be able to pick up a well-made powerful laptop for $600 instead of $2400. It's so much better to have something thats an iPad and a laptop. Ugh. Anyways. Underrated. Really really underrated. (disclaimer: I work on Android at Google)

[binkHN]

I concur! I have a few ChromeOS devices at home and, more often than not, it's a simple pleasure. And now with ChromeOS Flex, even more hardware can become more pleasurable. Yes, I know there are some downsides with Flex, but, in this case, I simply feel more ChromeOS, in either form, is, well, better.

[artificialLimbs]

Curious if you've test driven an Mx Mac?

[refulgentis]

Yes, tl;Dr got one at work for iOS dev a couple months back and I gotta be honest OS X is a real drag at this point. Brings me no pleasure to say this. Was such a huge fan.

Displays wider color range, CPUs faster, that's pretty much it on the positives side.

[vineyardmike]

As someone else said, it’s great for gifts. If you’re “the tech guy/gal” in the family, you have to fix people’s broken tech. With this, it’s a chrome book so it should be easy to use, minimal handholding, and if something breaks it’s easy to fix.

[samstave]

As someone who is a CHRONIC mis-placer of [things], this comment made me chuckle...

I fricken lost my titanium SPORKS from my kitchen, one of which was a "businuss card" gift from JD Blair... and I know that nobody stole my sporks... but for the life of me I have no idea where my sporks are, my THREE pairs of $500 glasses that costo made for me and so many other stupid things...(FFS I literally just bought a pair of $150 BT headset, and left it behind within two days of purchase (i was able to get them back - but, yeah...))

I cant imagine if my laptop had removable parts (I leave shit in Ubers all the time)

[sangnoir]

Sounds like you need a retractable lanyard expansion for the frame.work laptop

[LegitShady]

all the googlers now looking for a replacement for their now cancelled slates.

[dheera]

Yeah exactly. $999 isn't exactly Chromebook territory.

[IE6]

Chromebook ecosystem is completely saturated with low end / low cost devices so there is not a segment of the market there that is not being met. Even the "high end" devices are often computationally anemic (Pixelbook series with Y series CPUs and eMMC drives). As a Chromebook user I am glad there are at least 2 high end options now (Framework and HP Elite Dragonfly).

[refulgentis]

Pixelbook is 5-ish years old, there's a half-dozen models with latest Intel like Framework and Elite Dragonfly

[dheera]

Why would people pay that much for a Chromebook, when you could just install Ubuntu and delete all the icons except for Chrome?

[jjuel]

I mean isn't that a fair question all around? Why pay more for a high end laptop when you can just buy a cheap chromebook? The myth that ChromeOS is just a web browser is just that a myth. It can do so much more. Some people like a high end laptop, but also prefer the safety and security that ChromeOS provides. I owned a Pixelbook and loved it. Honestly still miss it. I would absolutely buy another high end ChromeOS device.

[IE6]

Because they want a Chromebook and they don't want Ubuntu with no desktop icons? I'm not sure what you're implying to be honest.

[dheera]

I mean, a desktop with a full-featured OS like Ubuntu (or Windows or Mac or whatever) can do so much more, and that justifies a higher price of the equipment. If I'm paying to have only Chrome and nothing else, I should be getting some kind of huge discount ...

Would you pay more to have a dumb phone that only does calls, than a smart phone?

[8jef]

ChromeOS has real Linux with terminal, Android with any app store you fancy, frequent updates that probably won't break your stuff, it's sandboxed all around, one can skip Chrome and use Firefox (and VLC and others) either from apt, Flatpak AND/or Android, machines are mostly touchscreen, Libre Office full install possible, if your machine is beefy enough you get Krita, you can totally skip the Google experience apart from Parameters (I do), and I'm missing some other good points. What not to love (beside it's Google and whatever you do end up feeding the giant hdd serving ads Google really is)?

As one who always get second hand Chromebooks, right now is the time to get a like new Acer 713 with i5 or a new ThinkPad C13 with R5 on the cheap. I've got both this week (cost C$825 total), will end up keeping the best for my needs, give the other to a relative.

[IE6]

An enterprise chromeos device (usually the higher end ones fall into this category) can run windows via parallels, web pages via the chrome browser, linux CLI and GUI apps via crostini, and android apps with google play support. Out of the box without any major modifications. Which Linux distribution offers that amount of functionality out of the box?

[Theodores]

I have the original Pixel 2013 vintage and I do not regret paying for that machine. However, it was exceptional for its time with a user experience that I still believe is the best it can be.

Nowadays I have a Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook with an 11th gen intel, 8Gb RAM and a normal Full HD display. It costs approximately half the Framework laptop. The keyboard is really good and backlit, the speakers are MaxxAudio and that actually means they are really good. The flip hinge, touch screen and pen (in the box) work great.

Out of laziness I do developer things on it. Rather than move to the next room to use my 'proper' computer, I install the linux apps and it works really seamlessly. I get that Android is not quite right, but, if you just want to have your notifications come through, it works great.

USB C is a game changer and I no longer want to be able to take my computers apart. I don't want the fans running more than a gentle breeze and I don't want to be taking the machine apart every year to vacuum out the cruft.

In the early Windows/DOS days you would be spending hours moving dip switches and trying to get the machine to work. It was much like automobiles a century ago where constant fiddling was required.

There is a difference between getting work done and tinkering. With a laptop that just works you are doing work not tinkering.

We all want more RAM, CPU speed and so forth and the upgrade option is fine in principle. But do you buy a car with the 1.6 litre petrol engine with the 'benefit' that you can put a 5 litre V8 in there? Nope. But some people make money off YouTube doing this sort of thing so it seems an acceptable 'use case'.

I am not actually negative about the proliferation of Chromebooks at all expense levels, to me they certainly do not have to be bargain basement - hence Chromebook Pixel. But money talks and half of $999 is an unusual spend on a Chromebook, never mind $999.

[cbsmith]

I mean, HP's Elite DragonFly Chromebook is 50% more...