- Framework just announced its next big product event
- The founder of the always-updatable PC company has some thoughts on AI and the cloud
- It is still committed to selling systems that it owns and can change as needed.
Framework, the computer company obsessed with letting you define and endlessly update your PC, is now taking a stance against the cloud, artificial intelligence, and lack of PC ownership, and it’s doing so by invoking a quote from the man who arguably inspired the PC revolution: Steve Jobs.
You may not have noticed it, but the center of the computing universe has shifted. It happened so quickly that we barely had time to adapt. While we once thought more about local computing power to process work, responses, images and play, now we are all obsessed with computing delivered to us from the cloud and in the form of AIs like ChatGPT and Gemini.
For Framework, which announced its upcoming product launch event on April 21 in a new manifesto post from company founder Nirav Patel, this is a call to action.
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Patel begins by explaining that the tectonic shift in computing has put the demands of the cloud in check, and that to meet the needs of these services and the AI that runs on them, consumers will inevitably lose.
“We see this in the rapidly rising costs of silicon and all the devices that depend on it, the shift from ownership to subscription, and the rise of closed black boxes in an open ecosystem. What does it all mean? The industry is asking you to own nothing and be happy.”
That lack of ownership is, in Patel’s opinion, at odds with what Steve Jobs told us decades ago: “the computer is the bicycle of the mind.”
Framework maintains that is no longer the case. Instead of bicycles, computers are now “autonomous cars that take you directly to the destination.”
To understand the gravity of that statement, we must remember what Jobs really meant. This is what he expressed in a 1990 interview: “
“Human beings are tool makers and we can create tools that amplify these inherent capabilities that we have to spectacular magnitudes. So, to me, the computer has always been a bicycle of the mind, something that takes us far beyond our inherent capabilities.”
AI is instead the self-driving car, and instead of us using computers to expand our abilities, we take our hands off the wheel and let the AI drive.
It’s a depressing thought.
A framework for reality
Framework, however, is not giving up. “As long as there is one person in the world who still wants to own their computing means, we will be here to build the hardware that enables it,” Patel wrote.
Sounds good, but I have to ask. To what end?
Sure, we liked Framework Laptop 13 DIY Edition when we reviewed it last year, but despite the ability to easily swap out virtually all components, our reviewer noted the complexities of installing Windows. It works well if you want to run Linux, but will appeal to a much smaller group of users.
If this is some kind of Vox Populi system, then it has to be something for everyone. DIY is inherently limiting. While I think it’s safe to say that most consumers want easily repairable systems. They don’t want to be the ones to build or repair them. People still like to buy finished products, even if they don’t have options.
They may not realize that they are slowly losing control of the system, the software, and where the responses come from, but I bet most of them don’t care. They are not picky about who responds or, unfortunately, the quality of those responses. Look how quickly they adopted ChatGPT, even when I was still freaking out.
So yes, I applaud the integrity of Framework and I know there is a market for their DIY fixable systems, but it’s not a big one and they alone won’t stem the tide of AI-driven systems taking us to our next inevitable destination.
I don’t call Framework’s efforts quixotic, but there’s a pretty big gulf between owing nothing and building everything. Our computers, whether delivered complete and more or less non-upgradable or as a collection of infinitely interchangeable components, remain vehicles of expression and production. They remain the trusted two-wheelers in our minds.
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