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dagmxtoday at 4:25 AM2 repliesview on HN

The modules are just inset usb-c dongles.

Handy that you can have them fully encased but there’s nothing really limiting any other laptop on this front. You just use an external dongle and have the same flexibility.

Maybe some people really want the enclosed module so they have fewer things to carry, but that’s a pretty small advantage that I’m not sure many people will value.

I could get something like this ( https://satechi.net/products/undefined/products/pro-hub-slim ) for my MacBook Air and come out ahead on weight and size.


Replies

johnnyanmactoday at 9:14 AM

>but there’s nothing really limiting any other laptop on this front. You just use an external dongle and have the same flexibility.

Yeah, but thars another part to lose. I have tons of dongles and expansion bays, and have lost half a ton of them to the tides of school, work, travel, and carelessness. Most lost, some break because it's a huge portrusion out of your core machine. A few borrowed and never returned. One of them stuck at an office I got laid off from but never returned to post pandemic (but the severance hush money was worth more than me raising a fuss as opposed to replacing the $30 bay).

I don't need it to literally be plug and play, but I appreciate a more modular setup that is flush and stuck to the machine.

PS. Your link is 404.

makeitdoubletoday at 5:04 AM

In wish I could have lived for a month or two with the Framework system to get a better feeling of it.

I'm usually either docked at my primary desk and only need a single USB-C, or moving from place to place and need 2 USB-A and a full size SD reader. I imagine the nice part with the insets is they're flushed so they'less surface to hit when moving the machine around.

I'd actually love to make my own insets that bakes the wireless dongles in them, that sounds doable.

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