Stepping down as Framework Linux Community Ambassadors

We are Tommi and Fraxinas, Framework Linux Community Ambassadors since September 2024.

We apprehensively followed the developments and the debate concerning Framework’s endorsement and support of Omarchy. We have no direct experience with this Linux distribution, its community, nor with the political environment around it. We did not speak up before now because learning about all of it and keeping up with all the commentary would have been a full-time job. Unfortunately we do not have the time to read every single comment on the dedicated forum thread.

Despite our admittedly limited and superficial understanding of this matter, we believe we have witnessed and read enough to make an informed decision and take a clear position.

The statements from Framework and from Nirav Patel (its CEO) made it very clear for us that Framework is not a company we feel represented by any more, and surely not a company that we want to represent as Ambassadors.

To be frank, it is not even necessary to dive into the petty drama about the recent events in order to provide an explanation of our decision. We are deeply disappointed by a company that is self-proclaimed as the resistance of the tech industry, the good David that intends to stand against the big tech Goliaths that are devouring it. Framework’s behaviour brought to surface an embarrassing and absurd inability to take an explicitly political position, blinded by the Western patriarchal narrative that technology in itself is not political. By trying to keep everyone happy (or at least not to make anyone mad) inside a fictitious “big tent”, the company proved to be no better than any of its Silicon Valley peers, dismissing comments about DHH, and comments about fascism and racism as not strictly related to the main mission.

We were proud to be ambassadors because we believed that Framework not only made products that empowered those who purchase them to fully own and repair their devices, but most importantly because we wrongly expected that this would imply changing the paradigm and the narrative about tech companies altogether.

We were offered the possibility of having a 1:1 conversation with Nirav Patel. We did not take it, because it is self-evident that our opinions are in contrast with the statements that he already made. Too bad, Framework is going to lose much more business than it would have if it simply acknowledged a mistake, took a deep inward look, and questioned its own values and stance.

In a world that is burning, thorn by conflict and greed, it is not enough to be “less evil”, to be radical only in some cases, and be moderate in others. We wanted to be ambassadors of a company that does not see fascism and proprietary software as two distant topics, but that recognised the entanglement of politics and technology, of capitalism and authoritarianism. It seems that this is not the case.

Farewell, Framework. We will miss the shining brave idea we had of you.

— @tommi and @fraxinas

The following statement was cross-posted on Framework’s Community Forum.

#Framework #politicalTechnology #SiliconValley #CalifornianIdeology