We all know about the ongoing “right to repair” war.

A company called Framework is the last in an attempt to create functional attractive fully reparable laptops. This is not an easy endeavor, but we are seeing more and more such projects and they keep getting better.

Nobody wants to sacrifice quality or usability even if it is to support a noble cause BUT, it’s important that when the day comes and we are presented with a viable alternative we should not sleep on it and support it

The day is getting close..

 

Last edited: Jul 25, 2021

The competition is too big and too cheap. Such are the laws of the market. A company has to sell a lot of laptops, otherwise it's not worth it. At some point there will surely be laptops you can build yourself with a solar panel, if there is a market for it. Or the project is financed with tax money. In South America - some children who live in poverty have received laptops with a crank from an association.

 

Last edited: Jul 25, 2021

This is about reparability. Keep it on topic

 

Sorry - deleted it. Here at the University of Freiburg you are currently mapping all parts of a cell phone. You want to reuse the parts. Before you can become a competitor product, a few more will pass. The awareness is growing slowly that raw materials are not available endlessly and that cobalt mining is done by children, etc.! The new magic word is. Cradle to Cradle (by Founded by William McDonough and Michael Braungart) https://www.c2ccertified.org by

Introduction to Cradle to Cradle

 

One guy that has being fighting hard to regain the right to repair and supporting that whole movement is repair man and youtuber Louis Rossman. It’s an interesting trajectory he’s been through (text from he’s fundraiser campaign)


“My name is Louis Rossmann; I run a laptop repair store, advocate for Right to Repair,and teach component level electronics repair. I have started a 501c4 nonprofit called Repair Preservation Group Action Fund which seeks to get Right to Repair legislation passed, through a direct ballot initiative. Direct ballot initiatives allow citizens to vote on legislation. This way, people - NOT politicians, decide on whether something becomes a law.

Right to Repair is the concept that you should be able to choose who repairs the device you own. We believe you should not be stuck going back to the manufacturer or dealer because parts, chips, manuals or tools are restricted by the manufacturer. Right now, manufacturers collude with a number of companies on a regular basis to keep repair shops & end users from being able to buy parts to fix their devices, going so far as to restrict access to a battery charging IC - one of the most common chips to fail in modern consumer electronics!

Whether it's tractors used by farmers, medical equipment , military equipment , or consumer electronics , this is something that now affects everything we own.

Right to Repair legislation already exists in the automotive industry! This allows you to bring your car to an independent mechanic to have it serviced, so that you have an option besides the dealership(who doesn't always offer the most economically viable repair options to the consumer). It also was amended in 2020 to close a loophole - through direct ballot initiative

I have been traveling and testifying at Right to Repair bill hearings for six years now. Sometimes, the politicians we speak to are uninterested in our cause. Sometimes they are, but cannot vote on the issue because other items come up in session that are seen as a higher priority. Sometimes they misinterpret the bill. Sometimes, the consumer protection chair runs a car dealership . In other cases, they just laugh us out of the room.

Can I be honest with you? I'm tired of being laughed out of the room, and it's about time we do something about it.

My audience has asked why we do not do a direct ballot initiative; it worked for the car people, right? It did - but it also cost them about 25 million dollars. This is a bit out of budget. The reason we have not done a ballot initiative is because they are very expensive!

I've reached out to the firm that was able to get a direct ballot initiative passed in MA for automotive Right to Repair. They were very helpful, and explained how & why it would cost $5,000,000-$20,000,000 to have a chance at success.

It is my hope that I can leverage the social media following I've amassed over the past 8 years, with a youtube channel of 1.56 million subscribers to be able to accomplish what they accomplished in the lower range of that 5-20 million that was estimated.

This craft allowed me to go from being in debt with $268 in my pocket to being financially secure with a sense of purpose. I have a new challenge everyday - and when I solve these challenges, I am able to bring customers back their lost memories through data recovery, & save them money through solving component level repair puzzles, all while making a good enough profit to pay a livable wage to those doing the work. I owe this industry everything - and want to ensure it is still here for another generation of technicians. Above all, I do not want to accept a future where we do not own anything, but are merely leasing it from the manufacturer until it breaks.

For this, I need your help. What I'd like to do with the funds raised from this campaign, is go for a direct ballot campaign in Massachusetts, retaining the firm that was used for Question 1 in 2020. They have already passed Right to Repair for automotive and when it was passed, it changed how car manufacturers dealt with repair shops throughout the United States. The deadline is in August to apply, and then this would be a ballot option in 2022, so we'd have a year and a half of campaigning & fundraising ahead of us. If we raise the money, we will do this - if we do not, we will go back to the traditional method of lobbying politicians on behalf of specific bills and hoping they pass it. But I am really hoping we raise what is necessary to do this via direct ballot.

I can't promise you victory - but I can promise that I will put in the most aggressive effort possible and that I will dedicate my life to this cause, taking priority over my business and youtube channel for the next two years.

Over the past eight years, with no budget, Right to Repair went from being a huh, what's that? to something more people know about - just from me spouting off on a youtube channel that I upload to on a hobby basis. Let's make this a reality. “

 

Framework, iFixIt, and Louis Grossman are doing the Lord’s Work with right to repair. Remember Google’s Project AVA for cellphones? If memory serves Motorola tried the modular approach for cellphones, but it didn’t take. It’s up to the public to support legislation and products that follow the Right To Repair movement.

if I was in the market for a Windows laptop, I’d try to check out FrameWork. One of my machines is a Mid-2012 laptop that’s been upgraded to 16 GB RAM, a 4 TB SSD, and using Big Sur via bensova’s Patched Sur. Given that my PCs can’t run Windows 11, they’ll be using Linux once Windows 10 dies. There are Hackintoshes for the Apple crowd, and hopefully, the street will come up with something once Apple goes to M1 full time and ditches Intel.

Please support Right to Repair initiatives in your area with your votes and your wallets. Walled gardens and planned obsolescence are ultimately bad for the consumer and the environment.

End rant.

 

Last edited: Jul 25, 2021

I like where they're going. The day they offer a laptop with a dedicated GPU will be the day I'll support Framework.

 

Reparable laptops may be far more profitable on the long term than the old ones.
Let's hope this sort of thing goes on and grow.

 

Great stuff. I hope it'll take off, too. What Olymoon said, and money is unfortunately the king. This could become a thing and people will just have to spend money on replacement parts, or additional parts they need.

 

It'll have to. With the amount of rare minerals that go into electronics production, before too long the only solution will be to strip them from old parts and repair/recycle as the supply runs out. Planned obsolescence will have to end.

 

I'm (ofc) all in for all this, but.. planned obsolescence is, well - planned, for almost 100 years now. And perfected to the point huge corporations can "destroy" things remotely (like M$/Apple/Google.. let's upgrade the OS).

I'm not always on the same page /w Linus, but being sort of mainstream he can reach larger audience. So here is his take on it:

 

Ok guys, let's not change the subject to a social political one, please. We know how it usually ends up.

 

Repairable and upgradeable "framework laptop" should avoid rubbish

Framework introduces a laptop with easily replaceable but modern components. The 13.5-inch notebook uses recycled aluminum and plastic.



The Californian company Framework has announced a laptop that will last a long time thanks to easily replaceable and upgradeable components and should avoid electronic waste. The 13.5-inch notebook remains relatively handy and light. Framework promises modern technology and delivery in summer.

With this notebook , Framework, founded in San Francisco in 2019, wants to show that recycled components, repairability, upgradeability and waste avoidance do not have to come at the expense of performance, quality and design. The framework laptop in the aluminum housing will be only 15.85 millimeters thick and 1.3 kilograms in weight, despite the easily replaceable components.

Modern hardware base in a laptop kit

The Framework laptop comes with a 13.5 inch screen in 3: 2 format and a resolution of 2256x1504 pixels. The integrated 1080p webcam can record 60 images per second and can be switched off on the hardware side. Eleventh generation Intel Core processors (Tiger Lake) drive the device and can be combined with Wi-Fi 6E, up to 64 GB of DDR4 main memory and more than 4 TB of NVMe mass storage.

For external connections , Framework is planning four plug-in and interchangeable modules that can be connected via USB-C. The modules themselves offer USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, DisplayPort, microSD, fast memory or high-end audio connections. The user should be able to choose his connections himself and adjust them later.

The entire mainboard can even be replaced for processor upgrades. The battery, screen, keyboard and magnetic frames of different colors should also be easy to replace. Framework uses 50 percent recycled aluminum and an average of 40 percent recycled plastic for the notebook housing. The outer packaging should even be completely reusable.

Pre-configured or DIY, details shortly

Framework will offer the laptop preconfigured with the Windows 10 Home or Professional operating system from this summer. A "Framework Laptop DIY Edition" is also planned for users who want to assemble and build their own notebook, including the choice of Linux as the operating system. Framework would like to reveal specifications, prices and pre-order dates in the coming weeks.

The company is also preparing an online marketplace for modules and spare parts. This will be open to other providers; Framework hopes for support from other manufacturers. This is to avoid the fate of similarly ambitious but failed projects. Even Alphabet failed: In 2014, Google wanted to make a modular smartphone called Project Ara a reality . But in 2016 the Google group ended the modular smartphone Project Ara again without ever bringing it onto the market. ( fds )

Source: https://www.heise.de/news/Reparierb...work-Laptop-soll-Muell-vermeiden-5066208.html

 

The replacability of components is certainly a good idea. I bought a Faiphone for this reason and would do the same for a laptop. I always hated to dispose hardware only because it's slightly older.
However, I notice in the picture that it seems the display doesn't seem to be replacable. That's a shame.

P.S.: My 10 years old DELL inspiron laptop was also self- replacable and upgradable. From the CD-ROM to the WLAN card, everything could be replaced with a screwdriver (but not the display).

 

Last edited: Jul 26, 2021

According to The Global E-waste Monitor 2020, 3.6 million tons of electronic waste were generated worldwide.
Question, how do you get the recyclables from old devices into new devices inexpensively from the garbage dumps?

Good role model, if it is possible with a smartphone, it is also possible for a laptop. https://www.fairphone.com/en/

Things you can make from old, dead laptops

How To Recycle Laptops

How to convert an old laptop into a stunning HTPC

 

Unfortunately when it comes to technology in the 21st century corporations and government are in lockstep on seemingly every path that that they tread upon, Big Tech dictating to their politico partners how to legislate, writing the actual bills to be voted on by their captured allies and impacting mostly negatively on the planet as a whole in a downward projectile towards pollution, ill health to the masses and the capture of their slanted and skewed narrative in the corporate media. In the same way that legislation is seriously needed in the music industry to foster equatable payout of royalties to artists, unless the masses bolt, strike against and attempt to make the changes for all our benefits instead of just for the incredibly wealthy and their minions, nothing can possibly change in the way laptops or work stations are fabricated and recycled. It's just the way it is.

 

A small ray of light in the dark sky.

Here in Germany there is a trend towards renting laptops instead of buying them. As with cars, with some people owning is no longer so important and they rent what they need. Rent laptops from € 17.90 / month

The repair cafes were not invented by the state either. It comes from below.
The individual is strong, the crowd is weak.

 

Last edited: Jul 26, 2021

I know, and that's exactly why I asked not to go down that hill, here.

 

all of the laptops I've owned are fully repairable even if some of them have been annoying to do so, I can always buy replacement screens or boards or whatever from the big laptop makers. am I just behind or are we talking about apple

 

:D I Have a Lenovo Thinkpad T530 with an i7 Processor. And almost every part of it can be replaced. It's modular to some degree. Oh, and once I bricked the BIOS. So I boutght a programmer and a clamp and reflashed it myself. Removed the wifi card whitelist as well, btw. Oh and it runs macOS. Oh and it does run it faster than a macBook pro from the same era. :D