FYI, their RAM and SSD prices are often almost double what you can find elsewhere – at least that’s the case in the US. Getting a DIY edition and buying these components separately will likely make the price a tiny bit easier to swallow. Still, spec wise alone it will never be a great value.

I had this perspective too when I made the decision to buy one in 2022. But recently what I learned is that their modern gen mainboards often cost between 2/3rds - 3/4ths of a full laptop with the exact same CPU from competitors.

With the amount I have spent on the initial purchase, and now an upgraded board, I would have easily been able to buy two laptops from some other company. I likely would have also ended up having a better display, a better battery than what was available in 2022, newer wifi, and so forth. So no, “upgradability” is not an actual benefit of Framework laptops in my experience.

That aside, I ultimately don’t regret my purchase because I did spill a beer on it last year and I was able to fix it for about $50 worth of parts. Framework’s value comes almost entirely from being able to repair it and eco-friendliness/sustainability.

Edit: In order to protect your privacy and security you need to understand how the tools you use work and what purpose they serve. There is no “app” that will do this for you. There are plenty that promise this though, and unfortunately this causes many people to assume there’s no attainable security. They see news articles saying a supposedly secure app was hacked, and without understanding the circumstances that leads to the outcome, post comments on threads like these claiming there is no way to be secure while using the internet.

— My original post: Start by understanding what Tor and onion routing do in general, especially compared to a VPN. Read through this: https://support.torproject.org/about/ at the minimum. Also, understand that using these tools won’t keep you safe or anonymous if your intention is to log into any of your existing accounts. The goal should be to separate what you want to do anonymously and make sure to not have any overlap with whatever your existing accounts are since those are already very much tied to you.

To actually use Tor I’d recommend starting with Tails: https://tails.net/about/index.en.html on a USB stick. If eventually you want to have a laptop or similar device that can persist some data maybe checkout Whonix: https://www.whonix.org/. The best setup would honestly be Qubes OS, but it’s definitely not a good starting point for anyone not already familiar with unix-ish systems.

Glue this on: ʌᴏᴏᴅᴏᴏ

But some have Jesusier hair than others, and as such my own allegiance has been destined without say.

Edit: FR the deciding factor was the 70 dollar screwdriver along with the “trust me bro” warranty. He’s a scumbag. His “media group” primarily produces entertainment clips with no value. I get some informative content from GN in comparison.