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All I wanted was cd quality audio (which I’m willing to pay for)…

You know you’ve screwed up when the lazy people (me) actually get off their butts to switch.

There’s three threads recommending framework 13. I commented in one. I actually own a new 13 with all the latest stuff. It comes close, but it’s not a Mac.

The trackpad works really good except it has a lot of play in it - it’s annoying.

I’ve seen better screens. Yes I have the newest one, no it’s not terrible - but there’s better out there.

The speakers are just ok. Not bad, just ok.

The 13 craftsmanship wise is amazing. My father in law just bought the 16. That one has fit issues with the trackpad and the spacers on either side of it.

Fingerprint readers on both and they work great. No touchscreen.

Battery life is good. Macs are better. My 13 goes about 6-7 hours of continual “normal use”. If I’m using teams for a video call, it’s significantly less - maybe 3 hours. Games - depends on the game but that can drain it in a couple of hours. You cannot under any circumstances go an entire day+ of continuous use without charging.

They are both fantastic linux machines (frameworks) and I highly recommend them. But the hardware is not Mac perfect despite what others say. Just trying to be real here - sounds like you have high expectations and I’d hate for you to buy an expensive laptop and be dissatisfied.

I have a framework 13 running Linux. It’s fantastic - but it’s not up to the high bar OP has laid out (IMO).

The screen is nice - but I’ve seen nicer. The trackpad works well, but the fit has a little bit to be desired - it’s no apple trackpad. The speakers are ok. Not bad, just ok. It’s also pricey.

If OP can compromise on those things, then yes, it’s probably as close to Mac hardware as he’ll get.

You want a MacBook. Apple has always made fantastic hardware. If you’re not willing to compromise, you’re stuck with macs.

Example, literally nobody else makes a trackpad like that.

I bought a lifetime license for makemkv like 15 years ago. It was the single best software purchase I’ve ever made. It just works on all platforms and for all disks. The hardest I’ve ever had to work at it is to “manually” open all the tracks and play a little guessing game for what track is the real one - but it’s ripped every CD and blu ray I’ve ever thrown at it.

My latest config is fedora workstation 42 with a portable blue ray burner drive. Works like a champ.

Not asked for but honorable mention goes to EAC for ripping CDs. I run that in bottles just fine.

For me, yes, everything just works. Fedora 42 gnome. Arch just worked as well. Nvidia 4090. Heavy flatpak user. I’ve had issues with mint and Debian distros being too far behind. My son runs Ubuntu today though - again no issues. And with a video card.

My vote is something is up with your install. Try another distro - maybe one of the gaming focused ones. Or just plain fedora workstation.

Agreed, a good article and I learned a lot from it. One thing I learned is that while secure boot and tpm are neat, I’m more confident than ever that they are just overkill and unnecessary for an average user.

Whether intentional or not - they DO get in the way of using other OSs or bootable flash drives like ventoy. Either by by malicious intent, accidental non signing or delayed signing, or just general complexity of coordinating signing everything with all the manufacturers.

It’s just a lot of hoopla for…. What?

Anti cheating? There’s been cheaters in online gaming forever and that will never change. Give me the option to make friends and play private games with them and I don’t care who cheats.

Security? I mean I guess…. but “don’t boot shady crap and make sure you’re downloading the right stuff” goes pretty far.

I dunno - secure boot and tpm are the first things I turn off and I’m not interested in using software that insists I turn them on. The juice ain’t worth the squeeze.

I’ve said it here before and I’ll continue to say it. All the Linux nerds (myself included) have strong opinions when it comes to distros or x vs Wayland, or flatpak vs repositories, blah blah blah.

But in the end - none of it matters. You could randomly eliminate all options except for one distro - and we’d happily pick that over windows. The trick is that you could make any distro like any other - it’s just that the distro did all the work for you. So pick the one that matches how you want to use your pc.

Maybe the only thing that’s not changeable is the philosophy behind the distro. Debian - older stuff for stability. Arch - bleeding edge rolling release. Fedora somewhere in the middle. You get the idea.

Tell us you don’t have a full time job without telling us.

None - see above.

Literally zero flex on the keyboard. I just pulled it out and pressed hard on it. No flex of the keys pushing down through the metal (like a gasket mounted mechanical keyboard would do), and zero flex of the aluminum.

I’ve been daily driving a framework 13 for like 9 months now. I’m pretty happy with it as a Linux machine.I can and will nitpick here to some of the points made in the article - but I’d buy another / recommended it regardless.

• the touchpad. It’s a diving board style. It’s also got a good amount of play in it prior to clicking. The diving board style means it’s tough to click at the top. Tapping works great. The extra play takes a little getting used to. It’s 1000% functional and works well - but if you’re snobby about trackpads, you won’t like it. It’s way worse than an Apple touchpad, but an upper end windows touchpad. The trackpads play also tends to allow “crap” and dirt to fall in there. I’ve had to take it apart once to clean it out (which is super easy to do on a framework, but it’d be nicer if I didn’t have to do it at all)
• the price - it’s a bit high for the specs. But that comes with the territory of a non glued laptop
• battery life is ok
• speakers are kind of crappy. They are fine, but they ain’t wowing anyone.
• the keyboard is ok

That’s it. 9 months of daily use, I love it, that’s my complaints list. The idea here is that someday, a better trackpad, or keyboard, or speakers will become available-and it’ll take me 5 minutes to upgrade. It’s a desktop laptop. And for me, everything “just works” on fedora 42.

Everyone overthinks it, and you are too.

Mint is great. It may not work for you if you have super new hardware.

Fedora is great. It’s mint but with newer stuff.

Arch is great. Bleeding edge. But it’s not “set it and forget it”.

Linux is great. There’s a million other options. Any of them work if they work for you. Find someone bashing Ubuntu - they would HAPPILY choose Ubuntu over win11.

And you have to realize the “what version I’m on dependency hell” thing is a thing of the past for the most part. Flatpaks just about solve this problem. You’ve got containers and vms too. Switching to another distro ain’t hard either as a nuclear option.

Just install mint or fedora like everyone says. Your requirements aren’t special, and both options are great.

Uneducated.

That’s the word you’re looking for.

Stupid if you don’t want to be nice about it.

Ah, good to know!

Yup - I was thinking the fast train, which isn’t fast at all compared to the rest of the world. I think that one is only once or twice a day - could be wrong though. Price aside, it’s not a terrible experience.

I’d rather dig my eyes out with a dull spoon than take the others. Snail’s pace and stops every 5 min.

San Francisco has a pretty good bus/trolley system. There might be other cities with decent busses but I’m unaware of them.

Some major cities like New York, Boston, Philly, Chicago have acceptable subways, and commuter rails. You can probably get a daily train from one city to the next. Example: you can take a train from Boston to NY once a day - it’s fairly ok, and probably preferable than driving for most people.

Most cities have busses that suck, and literally zero trains and subways.

Most Europeans don’t realize how big the US is, and how much of it is quite rural. It doesn’t make sense to build a rail to service the few dozen families in east bumfuck nowhere.

Getting a license to drive is, generally speaking, pretty easy from most states. Usually just a written test and a road test where you just have to drive around the block without breaking any rules.

Some city dwellers survive without cars, but they are kind of stuck in the city. When they want to get out, they’ll rent a car for the day.

I dunno, I recently bought two keyboards and both could do all theee, wired, wireless with the dongle, or Bluetooth with no dongle. I have a keychron and love it - if you’re looking for desktop keyboard, that’s a great choice although pricy. Logitech makes some good travel ones too that operate in all three modes. Try those brands if you’re having trouble finding Bluetooth keyboards.