‘Computers are no longer a bicycle for the mind’: Frameworks founder says the Steve Jobs era is over and PCs are now a ‘self-driving car that takes you directly to the destination’

Framework remains defiant

10 Apr 2026, 18:25 by https://www.techradar.com/uk/author/lance-ulanoff · TechRadar

News By Lance Ulanoff published 10 April 2026

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Framework)

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Framework just announced its next big product event
The forever-upgradeable PC company's founder has some thoughts about AI and the cloud
It's still committed to selling systems that you own and can change as needed

Framework, the computer company fixated on letting you define and endlessly update your PC, is now taking a stand against the cloud, AI, and the lack of PC ownership, doing so by invoking a quote from the man who arguably inspired the PC revolution: Steve Jobs.

Perhaps you haven't noticed, but the center of the computer universe has shifted. It happened so quickly, we barely had time to adjust. Whereas we once thought more about local computing power for processing work, answers, images, and play, we're now all fixated on compute delivered to us from the cloud and in the form of AI like ChatGPT and Gemini.

For Framework, which announced its upcoming April 21st product launch event in a new manifesto post by company founder Nirav Patel, this is a call to action.

Article continues below

Patel starts by explaining that the tectonic computing shift has put cloud demands in control, and that, to serve the needs of these services and the AI that runs on them, consumers will inevitably lose.

"We see this in the rapidly rising costs of silicon and all of the devices that depend on it, the shift from ownership to subscription, and the rise of closed black boxes over an open ecosystem. What does this all mean? The industry is asking you to own nothing and be happy."

That lack of ownership is, as Patel sees it, at odds with what Steve Jobs told us decades ago: "the computer is the bicycle of the mind."

Framework contends that's no longer so. Instead of bicycles, computers are now a ‘self-driving car that takes you directly to the destination.’

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