<div class="header-image"></div> <table class="table-header"> <thead> <tr> <th colspan="2"></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>2025-10-05</td> <td style="text-align: right;"><a href="About.md" class="internal-link">About</a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> # Framework 12 Review  *the default omarchy desktop, showcasing the Osaka Jade theme* I have been intrigued by Framework laptops since they were introduced a few years ago. A laptop that was designed to be repairable and upgradable? That has modular and interchangeable ports? Yes please! And when the Framework 16 was introduced that had a removable, upgradable GPU, I was *determined* that this would be my next laptop &mdash;&mdash; the last laptop I ever bought. Unfortunately the price-point was beyond what I could really justify at the time and so I passed on it. Hopefully a refurbished one will be in my future, but for now, I still had a couple of 15 inch laptops that were suitable. One thing I always wanted, though, was a tablet that was free from all google trappings. I had been looking at a Pixel tablet upon which I could install GrapheneOS, which, [in spite of everything](../Blog/2024-07-12%20Graphene%20Strikes%20Again.md), I have installed on my phone. But what I really wanted was a tablet that I could use as a computer. Any tablet I've ever owned to this point has really just been a toy that I use as a comic book and ebook reader. So when the 12 inch Framework 2 in 1 was announced, and the price was less than half of the Framework 16, I couldn't help myself. The coincidence is the Omarchy bandwagon that appeared at the same time. I ordered my FW12 at the end of August. In between then and now, I've been experimenting with different implementations of Hyprland (I'm nowhere near the point that I could configure it from scratch. I just don't have the time), as well as CosmicDE from System76. I wasn't a fan of Cosmic (though it was only in Alpha when I tried it), but I fell in love with Hyprland. In trying a few different implementations, I was better able to understand its capabilities, and was able to incorporate ideas from other people's configs when I finally decided on Omarchy. That decision probably was influenced, at least a little bit, by the excitement surrounding it on the Internet. But I truly did like the keybindings, the minimalist approach, and the TUI aesthetic. My real conern here was if Omarchy, or even a TWM, would be the best choice for a small 2 in 1? I wanted it to work out really bad. My hopes were high: there was some encouraging posts on X regarding the FW12/Omarchy combo:   Since all I really needed the tablet mode for was comics and ebooks, I figured this would be enough. (Framework also had a post about the pen working ootb). So let's dive in to see how everything worked for me! ## The Hardware First, when I ordered it, I did not include any ram or an SSD with the order. These were ***way*** too expensive when getting them via Framework. I bought a 2 TB SSD (WD Black, which is exactly what FW sells) and 16 GB of DDR5 (Crucial) from Amazon and saved over $100. The USI 2.0 stylus pens look comparable in price to those sold elsewhere, though they were not yet available when I ordered. I may at some point in the future, but I'm unable to review it for now. Other reviews of this laptop have been hard on the build-quality, but I'm honesty happy with it. It would have been nice to have a metal casing, but the plastic seems sturdy enough for me. It also makes it lighter. Thus it feels way more comfortable on my lap than other laptops I've owned. It also seems to run cooler. It gets a *little bit* warm underneath, but nothing that makes me want to move to a table. The keyboard feels great. This was another sore spot with some reviewers, but for me, typing on it feels precise and natural. It certainly feels better than later iterations of the Thinkpad, which felt to me that I had to hammer on the keys to register. This one allows me to comfortably type while sitting next to my sleeping wife. The big drawback for me here, though, is that the keyboard is not backlit. Keeping this in mind, I think the light grey colour of the keys was a mistake, as it blends in with the white printed characters, making them difficult to read in low-light settings. But because it's framework, I'm hoping that a backlit replacement will eventually become available ( 🤞 ). The charging cable is small and lightweight, which is nice. It doesn't take long to get a decent charge, but to charge the laptop fully, it does take a few hours, which I would knock off a few points for. The battery does last longer than just about any laptop I've ever owned though. I haven't timed it, but it did last me an entire day of moderate use (writing, browsing, listening to music over bluetooth, and reading some comics). The screen is nice too, one of the better ones I've used. I'm used to old Thinkpads though, and those screens are particularly horrible, especially on the older models. The size of it is taking me a bit to get used to. I am used to 15+ inches of realestate so going to a 12 inch screen is a little bit of an eyestrain. It's especially noticeable when switching back to the 15 inch. Of course one of the big features of any Framework computer is the configurable ports. The FW12, just as the FW13, has four interchangeable slots for "expansion cards." There's two on either side, and allow the user to put whatever ports they like on the laptop. I've put one USB C and one USB A port on either side, and I also bought an HDMI card that I can swap out if I ever want to connect to a TV or external monitor. One weird decision that was made here, though, is the inclusion of a 3.5mm audio jack. This isn't one of the expansion cards btw, but is built into the laptop. The FW13 does *not* have this and an expansion card with an audio jack is available. I really don't understand why it's built into this laptop. I would *much* rather have a slot for a 5th expansion card! Or a permanent USB C port. Or any number of things. Audio jacks are a relic of the past at this point, but for anyone who actually *wants* one, there is the expansion card already available. It's a weird decision, but not one that gets in the way. I, for one however, will never actually use that port. One more note on the hardware is the laptop's tablet mode. It does really feel like a 12 inch tablet, though it's a little weird accidentally pushing keys or the touchpad when holding it (as I explained earlier, I've never used a two-in-one before). But, as the Twitter post above states, the keyboard and touchpad is indeed disabled in tablet mode. It's also thin and light enough to feel natural. I'll talk more about tablet mode in my review of Omarchy on this laptop. ## Omarchy I had a little bit of trouble actually getting Omarchy installed, but that was 100% user error. I knew that secureboot needed to be disabled but it took me a few minutes to actually find where I could do this. When you first turn on the laptop it takes several minutes for even the screen to turn on. According to the Framework website, this "...is normal—the system is performing memory training," and "...may take a few minutes depending on how much memory has been installed." I of course didn't read this and immediately thought something was wrong. I'd replaced HDDs, SSDs, RAM, CPUs, NICs, etc in so many desktops and laptops by now that I didn't bother following any instruction. I also had watched a few videos on the FW12 specifically so I was ready for the screw-less installation of these components, and just dove in and installed everything. So when this happened, it threw me off a little bit. When it did eventually turn on, a friendly message comes up telling you there's no OS, and if you hit enter you are presented with the BIOS. So perfect! Except there was no option for secureboot. I didn't realise that, no, you still had to press F2 when the Framework logo appears to enter the proper BIOS. It took me an embarrassingly long while to figure that out. Once I was in, though, it was immediately apparent how to disable secureboot. After this, Omarchy installs as quickly as one would expect. There's not much to say on that front. It's the same install as on any machine. There are definitely some configurations that you will want to make at the outset to have Omarchy feel at home on this laptop, though. The first is display scaling. By default, Omarchy is set at 2.0, obviously with 4k or higher resolutions in mind. For those that are familiar with Hyprland, you may just open hyprland.conf, but you will quickly see that it references several other config files to edit, monitors.conf being one. These files are also referenced in the setup menu, accessed by *SUPER + ALT + SPACE => Setup*. In monitors.conf, there are several different configurations commented out, so changing it to accommodate the FW12's 1920x1200 resolution is trivial. I ended up changing the scale to 1.2, however, as 1.0 was just too small for me on the 12 inch screen. Touch did indeed work out of the box. It was expected, but still, I was very pleased to see how well it worked. Pinch-zoom also worked fine without any adjustments necessary. Also as expected, rotate was not working. For some reason I had some difficulty getting this going. For anyone attempting to set this up, here is (what I feel) a better explanation than what is contained in the readme: The files can all be obtained via [the author's Github](https://github.com/2disbetter/FW12Rotate) After downloading the binary file and placing it, as directed, into `/usr/local/bin/`, I simply ran it from the terminal. This starts it and allows you to rotate everything just fine. As stated in the readme, 2 additional files are created: 'scale' and 'rotation-toggle'. When you run it the first time, it is immediately apparent that the scale has been changed, so open the scale file and change the 2 to a 1.2 (or whatever you've set the scale to in monitors.conf). Run FW12Rotate from the terminal again, and the scale will be corrected. From here, you can just leave it, and rotation will just stay on. This will be persistent across reboots. If you want to be able to toggle it on and off with a keybinding, *a fourth file needs to be created*, and you will do this manually. This is where the script in the readme file goes: ```bash #!/bin/bash TOGGLE_FILE="$HOME/.config/hypr/rotation-toggle" # Toggle between 0 (off) and 1 (on) if [ "$(cat "$TOGGLE_FILE")" -eq 1 ]; then echo "0" > "$TOGGLE_FILE" notify-send "Auto-rotation disabled" else echo "1" > "$TOGGLE_FILE" notify-send "Auto-rotation enabled" fi ``` This file can be put wherever you like. I have a "scripts" folder in my home directory and so I named it toggle-rotation.sh and placed it there. Make it executable, and then open up ~/hypr/hyperland.conf to create the keybinding. Add the following to the end of this file (assuming you've named it the same and placed it in a 'scripts' folder as I have): ``` bind = SUPER, R, exec, ~/scripts/toggle-rotation.sh exec-once = /usr/local/bin/FW12Rotate ``` And that's it! 'SUPER + R' will now toggle screen rotation. You shouldn't even have to reload hyprland, but do so if it doesn't work right away. A massive thank-you should go out to [@2disbetter](https://x.com/2disbetter) for creating this application. >[!Note] >This might be a good place to include a small caveat: This is an Arch system, and as such, you *will* run into Arch problems, such as needing to do a little extra to get screen-rotation working. I've run into a couple already; one, for example, was an issue where the audio output wouldn't automatically switch to a bluetooth device when connected. I had to switch manually, and then the audio keys on the keyboard would not adjust the audio. AI here helps tremendously. Not only was I able to correct the issue, but I now have a more thorough knowledge of pipewire and audio sinks. > >My point here is that, while issues will crop up, they are immediately solvable, even if you don't have the knowledge to do so. This makes Arch easier to learn now than Linux in general was when I switched 15 years ago. These little issues used to arise even in solid distros like Mint. These sorts of things never happen in Mint any longer, but that wasn't always the case. And back then, I might *never* have resolved the issue, as it required pouring over forums and out-of-date answers. With AI I was able to resolve the bluethooth issue one morning while having a cup of coffee. There are so many little things that the community around Framework and Omarchy have contributed (such as the auto-rotation script), it's really difficult to mention them all. I've honestly never encountered such a friendly community, eager to help out newcomers. New Omarchy themes are being shared all the time, and someone has created an application called "Aether" (found in the AUR) that will extract colours from any wallpaper and create a theme around it with the click of a single button. It also lets you make adjustments to any of the colours you like. This brings me to some software selections I might recommend, if you want to go all in on the TUI aesthetic. And why wouldn't you want to do that? Omarchy is made for TUIs! **Musikcube** is a really nice little music player for local files. There's a shortcut menu at the bottom for a quick reminder of the keybindings, and it's mouse-friendly. It's also very fast. It added my library of ~20,000 mp3s in about a minute.  I tried using **Termusic** for my music palyer, but Musikcube was so much better. That said, I continue to use Termusic for podasts. It doesn't include mouse support, but does include some commonly used shortcuts displayed in a bar at the bottom. Another thing it suports is searching for podcasts, which is really nice. Other podcast TUIs I've used require RSS feeds to be added manually. **Cava** is a spectrum analyser that very configurable, and is a cool little app to have running while playing music or podcasts. I've been using **GoRead** as an RSS news aggregator. This works well in laptop mode, but I'm also using Newsflash, which is a little better for casual reading in tablet mode, as GoRead is not mouse (and therefore not touch) friendly. Some of these can be found in the main Arch repositories, others in the AUR which, for the month or so that I've been experimenting with Omarchy, has been a little flaky. There has been DDOS attacks on the AUR servers, and so it has been intermittently offline for a good while. As of this writing, the AUR has been relatively stable for about a week. Omarchy is intended to be a starting point to running Hyprland, but remember that everything is configurable, so if something doesn't fit your personal workflow, change it! I've mostly left things as they are, but there were a few things that I've adjusted. Many of the apps included, particularly the web apps, I will never use, so I removed most of them. This freed up a lot of keybindings that I now use for other things. I also added some keybindings for resizing windows so I don't have to use the mouse or trackpad. I didn't like having a tray-expander on the top bar, so I removed it. The bluetooth icon didn't show when anything was connected. I just added a "." to the icon to show if I had a device connected. I moved the clock to the right, and added a taskbar to the middle, just to be able to quickly see what I had open on other desktops.  *My current Omarchy desktop, displaying Termusic, Musikcube, Cava, and a connected bluetooth speaker* While I was testing Omarchy on another laptop, I found that gaming was a real challenge. That one has a discrete Nvidia GPU, so I'm not sure if that was the culprit, or Wayland, or the fact that Hyprland is a TWM, but for that reason, I can't recommend Omarchy for all usecases. But for a low powered machine used primarily for reading and writing, it's really perfect! I'll definitely be keeping it installed on this little machine. I have 2 other computers, one of which is just for gaming. That one will get something more appropriate, such as CachyOS or Bazzite. >[!info] Update >Just before I published this post, Omarchy 3.1.0 released, which added a *metric TON* of new features that I haven't mentioned here. Probably the most notable is the ability to group windows into tabs within a tile. This was a feature introduced in CosmicDE, which just recently went into beta. It seems clear to me that [@vaxryy](https://x.com/vaxryy) wrote this feature into Hyprland specifically as a response to that feature. Another feature that I find particularly nice is live theme switching for Obsidian, but I've not been able to get that working yet.