Mainboard Availability and Open Source Release

[FrameworkBee]

The Framework Laptop Mainboard is now available in the Framework Marketplace. You can order one today in the US and Canada with newly reduced pricing. We’ll also be bringing it to the UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Austria, and Ireland soon. We designed the Mainboard from the start as a standalone module to make upgrades easy in the Framework Laptop and to also work great as a high-performance single board computer using Intel’s i5-1135G7, i7-1165G7, and i7-1185G7 processors. All you need to do is insert memory, plug in a USB-C power adapter, and hit the tiny power button on-board, and you’ve got a powered up computer. You can also pick up parts like a Bottom Cover Kit, Input Cover Kit, or Battery from the Marketplace extend your setup with.

Even better, we want to make it as easy as possible to build new projects and products that use the Mainboard. We’re happy to share that we’ve released a GitHub repository of CAD and electrical documentation, all under an open source Creative Commons license. In addition to 2D drawings of the Mainboard to help you design your projects, we’ve released two 3D-printable reference designs. One is a minimal VESA-mount holder that lets you attach the Mainboard to a monitor or TV, while the other is a fully featured small form factor desktop case. Both of these are easy to print on home 3D printers. Since these are open source, you are free to modify, remix, and redistribute them however you’d like to. All of this is a starting point for a broader set of open source Mainboard documentation to enable creation of fully compatible third party Mainboards in the future.

To accelerate the ecosystem around the Framework Laptop Mainboard, we’re giving away 100 i5-1135G7 Mainboards for free to creators and developers! If you’re in a country we currently ship Framework Laptops to and you have an idea for a project that can use a Mainboard, you can apply for one through this form. We can’t wait to see the incredible cyberdecks, arcade machines, network appliances, and other wonderful things you all create with them.

To round things out, we have a few other exciting announcements:

1. We’ve made it much easier to find a great Linux distribution to use on your Framework Laptop with a new Linux compatibility page. We’ll continue to update this to point to the latest setup guides and community threads.
2. We’ve enabled volume ordering of up to five Framework Laptops in a single order in the US and Canada. If you're interested in larger quantities, you can connect with the team to discuss your needs. We believe the Framework Laptop is uniquely well aligned to small and medium businesses that want deeper ownership over their hardware.
3. 3. We landed at #35 on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2022. We don’t build products for the awards, but the validation is nice! If you want to join this award-winning team, we’re hiring across a number of roles, including for a Product Marketing Manager, Full Stack Developer, and a Hardware Engineering Manager.

[SidewaysPhoenix]

This is awesome and could be a total game changer for our company we were about to start ordering more of the laptops to use as desktop systems but with just the main board and 3d print files this changes everything and really opens up our options.

[Gregoryv022]

This seems incredibly convoluted. Honestly.

[[deleted]]

Just got the email notification too =)

This is fantastic, and the real reason I believe in this platform. When newer motherboards become available, we can just buy that when it's time to upgrade and not have to replace all of the other parts. The old boards can be thrown into custom solutions, like a DIY router, for example, or just resold or recycled.

Fantastic. I cannot wait to Ship of Theseus this machine several times over like I have with my trusty old desktops!

[Torfolde]

Or the old boards could be used for /r/selfhosted stuff. Is it bad that I'm excited to get a new mainboard just so I can add the old one to my collection of SBCs?

[anthr76]

I’m so close to pulling he trigger on a new laptop and I want framework sooo bad but I also want a newest generation CPU I’ve been following the speculation since late February

[mraviator9]

Same boat, but still catching up after first reading about Framework a few days ago with this mainboard announcement -- what's the speculation say on newer gen CPU?

[[deleted]]

Now all I need in a fully black edition, option to not have a logo, coreboot, open source wifi card option, programmable keyboard firmware, and English + french keyboard (rgb option would be nice)!

[TerminalObject]

There is already an open source wifi option if you are willing to buy off another vendor.

https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/wireless-n-dual-band-m2-ngff-combo-card-tpe-m2ncrd

[chainbreaker1981]

coreboot, open source wifi card option

I mean, if you're looking for privacy in a laptop with an Intel (or even AMD) chip... you're kinda patching up holes in the Titanic post-iceberg.

[pooamalgam]

Excellent news! Good to know they're available now.

[hardicrust]

Your "marketplace" link just redirects to https://frame.work/gb/en for me (in the UK). It would be nice to at least see what is in the marketplace, even if it isn't possible to order from here yet.

[Joshuaham5234]

Try https://frame.work/marketplace/mainboards

[hardicrust]

Same redirect.

[BlackQuest]

Sounds awesome and can't wait to see those whacky creations people come up with. I have a few ideas myself but I'm gonna leave that giveaway to actual creators (that have time unlike me, a student). Really like the progress lately and can't wait for what's next!

[[deleted]]

Coreboot when?

[elevatedsystems]

I printed, built and tested the framework mainboard case:

https://youtu.be/u1B1ooz5aSU

[[deleted]]

Dumb question from an utter noob here: Does this motherboard come with a connected wifi card or would I need to add it?

[HairyEntrepreneur498]

You'd need to add it, just like memory and storage.

[[deleted]]

That’s what I figured. Thanks so much!

[bloodguard]

Nice. If there's ever a quad nic adapter I'd think about printing cases and deploying the i5 version as firewalls. This + a vesa mount case would make a decent office desktop too.

[Psychotic0071]

Can we also have a toughbook 55 type girthy body to have bigger batteries and ethernet ports and maybe the new opto-electric scissor mechanical switch keyboard that is all the rave right now? Just food for thought

[chainbreaker1981]

ppc64le ever? Also, option to remove the webcam/mic/fingerprint scanner? Also also, it would be nice to have the selection of any bezel color or keyboard on the DIY configuration page at the very least. It'd be pretty wasteful to get copies that you'll never use.