Buyer's Anxiety

I can't say that I'm thrilled that my blog posts have only been when I'm down or struggling with something. But, here we are: the third one.

I'm stuck with an internal conflict. It feels like remorse, but before the poor choice has happened, as opposed to fear? But it is fear.

It's no secret that I love my Framework 16, the company's values, and Linux.

I also want to support my friends whenever and however I can.

But what if those two things clash?... Spoiler: they have.

To preface this whole thing, my friend is looking for a new laptop. She bought her old one because it was in her price range. Four years later, it's... struggling. The enshittification of the tech industry took hold, one hinge died a couple years ago, the whole body is weak, the system is relatively underpowered for her needs, and it's not going to survive university in any good condition, if even that. As a two-time published author, she needs to be able to type and open this system a lot. That means a good keyboard and good hinges. She also wants to play Minecraft, Roblox, and probably Uno on it too. Thus, GPU demands aren't high and she'll want at least a 15" display. She treats her devices well and cares for their longevity.

To me, this sounds like a great place for a Framework laptop. Expensive upfront, sure. But the 16" model has an iGPU that runs Minecraft and Roblox just fine, has a super easy to replace input module system to replace the keyboard, good hinges, a CPU that's total overkill (even for the stuff I do; I wanted a six-core), and it wears like a tank. A guy at our high school proved that unintentionally. I have the dent in the lid and the pristene display to prove it. It also has some added benefits, like the hardware switches for the camera and mic, overall modular design, repairability, and the upgrade paths, which save her from spending more money to buy a full tower or another laptop. Framework recently announced the new generation boards for the FW 16, and knocked down the price of the 7040 series boards slightly, but that's a nice-to-have. Even if you're a non-techie, you won't need to get into the hardware unless you're building it or repairing something, and Framework's guides have only gotten better. Even when trying to replace the liquid metal, or solve an issue that I thought was a loose display cable (it was a linux software issue of some kind), the guides got me through the wholly unknown to me.

This makes it sound perfect.

The downside? Well, I feel like I'm just succumbing to brand loyalty. A total shill. The whole above paragraph sounds like a sales pitch without the company's values explicitly spouted. The one thing I envy of Apple fans, is their ability to convince others that Apple is great and feel no conflict.

Is this what a parent feels like when buying for a child? Probably not? After all, the child likely isn't knowledgeable upon the context, or doesn't care enough to question the rationale leading to the purchase. But here, I'm buying for a friend. Someone smart (Before someone starts, I'm not saying that a child can't be smart or that the rest of my friends are dumb). Sure, she's not a techie the way I am, but she is more than capable of questioning things for herself. What's the price? What's the rationale? Are you just pushing me into an ecosystem that you love? Are you buying my friendship? ...and so on down the rabbit hole my train of thought hops.

I've already convinced two friends to try Linux, but their hardware and personal needs caused too many problems. I also convinced a family member of mine, who was an Apple fan, to shift to a Framework 13 running Linux.

I feel like a manipulator. I left my proud, cheerful "switch to Linux" chanting phase a while ago. But did I really? Am I so moral-driven that I'm blind? Is this really a selfless gift to a friend? Is this because I'm afraid of losing my friends? Or do I subconciously hold an agenda to migrate everyone to Framework and Linux? As stupid as it sounds, I mean this literally.

Even if you consider the idea that "only a good person would think like that, because a bad person would know it," it doesn't help.

To make things worse again, I've long spouted buying something with the intent to run it long term, instead of buying a bunch of cheap somethings that die super fast. My previous laptop, which I got from my father, ran for nearly 12 years before the display started dying; now it's a server. So imagine a teenager with that kind of a background in keeping a computer running for so long, sees a 3-year old laptop already in a far worse condition than their 10/11-year old one (with comparable specs). I was that teenager, and I started a "joke" once I got my new laptop, about it's easily replaceable hinges... and so on. Of course, I was prideful in a sense, and I kept that "joke" going too long... So how will it look when the laptop who's death I foretold gets replaced by the exact laptop that it was compared to? (Assuming that I didn't start the "joke" about the purchase decisions, age, and condition of my previous one.)

The only consolation I get for now, is that I have a few days to see how Katie likes the FW 13, which is loaned off the aforementioned family member of mine. The trouble, because of course there's more, is that I need to discern between her impressions of the computer, and the OS, since it's Manjaro Linux. Because of that, my plan is to dual boot the gifted system. That way she can finish her computer science stuff in the same environment, and then decide whether or not to scrap the Linux partition.

Of course, as always, my troubles start just after having had a counselling session. So, I'm left to deal with this myself for a few weeks.

Sometimes I wonder why things can't just be simple for me in life...

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Now, as a note, I'm not saying that Framework is perfect. They've had, and continue to have, their issues. The difference is that they actually listen and work on them. The guides, the incorrect QR codes, the support system, FW16 keyboard deflection, late UEFI updates, the FW16 keyboard wake-up issue with the screen closed, the first-gen display expansion cards power draw issue, and so on. And sure, they can be slow. But they're small, and they try to do it right the first time. They release the software and hardware patches to affected systems, and listen on to further critique in the interest of improving.