A senior executive said that Intel is making laptops more modular, as part of a bid to make them more flexible and easy to repair. But only Framework appears to be really taking action from a consumer standpoint.
  • the_riviera_kid@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    2 months ago

    I have a hard time believing a company as anti-consumer as Intel would want to do anything even remotely pro-consumer so now I’m left wondering what nefarious anti-consumer deeds they are doing in the background.

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      The modular desktop is largely from them.

      From a business standpoint, if I were Intel, I imagine that I might be very interested in leveraging my ability to do modular x86 systems. There is incoming laptop competition from ARM SoC systems, which are particularly weak on modularity. There, it’s not even just the laptop vendor making calls as to what components go on the system, but Qualcomm or whoever the SoC vendor is, so the consumer is even further away from having ability to choose what they get.

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      Framework is better than the norm for laptops, but a long way from where desktops are.

        • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
          31·
          2 months ago

          If you’re happy with your Framework laptop as of 2025, great, but this is hardly the end of the road. I want more than what Framework offers in 2025. Almost none of the things I want modularized are made modular by Framework today.

          • Viri4thus@feddit.orgEnglish
            3·
            2 months ago

            I’m sure they halted r&d and their products have now crystalised ad eternum, we do really need intel to bring that boat to shore because framework stopped. In fact, everything intel touches turns to gold so this ad is more than just an ad, it’s a prophecy!

    • RelativeArea1@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      they are their major contributor, its just they’re currently being fucked by cheeto hitler and its party. and it’ll be a looong 4 years to make any development with framework tech…or idk, who knows?

      • Viri4thus@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        Framework could move to Europe, we have some of the best engineers in the world and they are far cheaper (and easier to work with) than the California stock.

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      They produced what is today’s standardized, modular x86 desktop. I don’t doubt their technical or business ability to establish a standardized, modular form factor in something approaching a laptop form factor.

  • DannyBoy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    4·
    2 months ago

    Of course, having replaceable CPUs on laptops would open up a huge market for people buying new CPUs to install.

    My laptop I used through university just a few years ago, an HP Elitebook 840 G3 had a toolless bottom panel that popped off to allow access to the battery, wifi card, m.2, SATA drive, and RAM. I upped to to 16gb RAM and put a m.2 drive in both for cheap and it was a capable computer and still gets used today. Why can’t we still do that?

    • Alphane Moon@lemmy.worldMEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      You can still do that, but you typically have to get a chunky “gaming laptop” with SO-DIMM memory.

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      That, but also, I think that ability to upgrade the GPU is likely more important than the CPU, these days. CPU performance and capabilities aren’t changing as quickly as those of the GPU, and there are more non-gaming parallel compute applications coming to the fore. If you want to extend an older computer’s longevity by putting a modern component in, I’d think that the GPU would be more critical.

  • BestBouclettesEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    They kind of were, then they started soldering and glueing everything shut because it was cheaper

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    l’d like there to be a portable, modular PC, and I want one for myself. I’d like the ability to have a larger, replaceable battery (maybe with multiple batteries a la Toughbook that can collectively exceed 100Wh); a Synaptics-style trackpad with three physical buttons; more USB-C ports (at least Framework laptops can do this one); more memory; centered keyboard with Caps Lock and Left Control physically swapped; a desktop-style, physically-removable, larger, better-optics webcam that can be left in a small case and attached only when I want to use it; an HMD instead of standard display when we hit the point that they’re a viable display replacement; a case that doesn’t rely on a spudger to open; a case with space to put air vents somewhere other than the bottom so that using the device on a soft surface doesn’t obstruct them, and so forth.

    However, I don’t think that it makes sense for all laptops to do that. Modularity does come with costs, and not everyone wants to pay them.

    • Physically, more size and weight. Need more space to make all these individually-structurally-sound components. I don’t care about this, as I throw my laptop into a backpack, but some people will.

    • More power usage to use more widely-separated chips. Phones can be light on power in part because they’re using an SoC, the opposite of modularity. I don’t care about this because I’m fine with just throwing bigger batteries at the thing, but some people will.

    • Easier to test and validate that a fixed number of devices work together (not a big deal for me, as I’m fine with where desktops are today).

    • Security issues. External bus devices have historically not been trusted, but internal bus devices have been. If I can get physical access to your laptop and I can easily replace an internal component, that might have security implications.