Framework’s software and firmware have been a mess, but it’s working on them

Since Framework confirmed off its first prototypes in February 2021, we have typically been followers of the corporate’s modular, repairable, upgradeable laptops.

Not that the corporate’s {hardware} releases up to now have been good—every Framework Laptop computer 13 mannequin has had quirks and flaws that vary from minor to quite significant, and the Laptop 16’s upsides battle to stability its downsides. However the {hardware} principally does a great job of functioning as an everyday laptop computer whereas being way more tinkerer-friendly than your typical MacBook, XPS, or ThinkPad.

However even because it builds new upgrades for its methods, expands gross sales of refurbished and B-stock hardware as budget options, and promotes the re-use of its products via external enclosures, Framework has struggled with the opposite facet of computing longevity and sustainability: offering up-to-date software program.

Driver bundles stay un-updated for years after their preliminary launch. BIOS updates undergo lengthy and complicated beta processes, preserving customers from getting function enhancements, bug fixes, and safety updates. In its group help boards, Framework workers, together with founder and CEO Nirav Patel, have acknowledged these points and promised fixes however have remained inconsistent and imprecise about precise timelines.

However based on Patel, the corporate is engaged on fixing these points, and it has taken some steps to deal with them. We spoke to him in regards to the causes of and the options to those points, and the corporate’s strategy to the software program facet of its efforts to advertise repairability and upgradeability.

Guarantees made

Here is a working example: the 12th-generation Intel version of the Framework Laptop 13, which prompted me to start out monitoring Framework’s software program and firmware updates within the first place.

In November 2022, Patel announced that this mannequin, then the latest version, was getting a pleasant, free-of-charge spec bump. All 4 of the laptop computer’s recessed USB-C ports would now grow to be full-speed Thunderbolt ports. This wasn’t a dramatic practical change, particularly for individuals who have been principally utilizing these ports for primary Framework growth modules like USB-A or HDMI, however the improve opened the door to high-speed exterior equipment, and all it will want was a BIOS replace.

However the BIOS replace by no means confirmed up. Almost a yr and a half later, Framework’s help web page for that Twelfth-gen Intel laptop computer still says that there’s “no new BIOS obtainable” for a laptop computer that started transport in the summertime of 2022. This factory-installed BIOS, model 3.04, additionally does not embrace fixes for the LogoFAIL UEFI security vulnerability or some other firmware-based safety patches which have cropped up within the final yr and a half.

And it isn’t simply that the updates do not come out; the corporate has been unhealthy about estimating once they would possibly come out. That Twelfth-gen Framework BIOS additionally does not help the 61 WHr battery that the corporate launched in early 2023 alongside the Thirteenth-gen Intel refresh. Framework informed me that BIOS replace can be out in Could of 2023, and it nonetheless hasn’t been launched. A battery-supporting replace for the Eleventh-gen Intel model was additionally promised in Could 2023; it got here out this previous January.

Framework has been attempting, however it retains working into points. A beta 3.06 BIOS update with the promised enhancements for the Twelfth-gen Intel Framework Laptop computer was posted again in December of 2022, however a last model was by no means launched. A newer 3.08 BIOS beta entered testing in January 2024 however nonetheless gave customers some issues. There’s been no communication in that thread from anybody at Framework since early February.

The result’s a number of lengthy discussion board threads of pissed off customers asking for updates, interspersed with not-untrue however unsatisfying responses from Framework workers (some model of “we’re a small firm” is likely one of the commonest).