This is the end of official updates for them, they’re not bricked.
Older Chromebooks do have a shitty support lifecycle, it can’t be denied. Newer (post 2020 launch) Chromebooks come with at least 8 years of updates, although that’s from product launch, not from when you buy them. That is comparable to Apple’s support lifecycle.
It is possible to install ChromeOS Flex on out-of-support Chromebooks, though likely you will lose some features. You can also install generic Linux on them, but it’s got to be said it’s a slightly annoying experience.
Installing Linux to continue receiving support sound like the best option out there.
Fwiw, they aren’t expired, they just stop getting feature updates after a while. They still get security updates and they work perfectly, software gets updates etc. Essentially the same as MacBooks. So no, not at got as getting a Windows laptop but not as bad is getting screwed by apple
No my man, they stop getting security updates. If you think cash strapped K12 institutions would happily toss useable Chromebooks out because they don’t get feature updates, then you are dead wrong.
There is going to be a massive K12 money issue coming in about 3-4 more years. Everyone who didn’t have a 1 to 1 program in effect took all that COVID money and threw it at their Tech depts to enable 1 to 1. Those grants, for those amounts, aren’t gonna be here 3-4 years from now. I honestly have no idea what poorer districts are gonna do, but it’s gonna be a fucking reckoning.
Source: Former Ed-Tech Tech
My 2015 MacBook got its last major update last year - that’s 7 years. It still gets security updates.
This article says the Chromebooks get 3-6 years.
Anyway, now that I know this I’m going to look out for second hand chrome books. Think I could run a Plex server on one?
Anyway, now that I know this I’m going to look out for second hand chrome books. Think I could run a Plex server on one?
You can refer to https://mrchromebox.tech/ for a listing of what chromebooks that firmware can be flashed on to (refer to Supported Devices on the left). Chromebooks ship with a modified BIOS that will only work with the Chrome OS that installed on those devices. Their BIOS/firmware is also in read only mode but that can be disabled usually by removing a screw somewhere on the motherboard. After that, you have to flash that alternative firmware over so that the computer can have a BIOS that is compatible with other operating systems (consequently making the computer unable to run Chrome OS).
The FAQ (linked below) mentions that there is a “handy spreadsheet” compatibility list as well. Notably, some Chromebooks are not quite compatible with Linux and show this by literally frying their speakers (supposedly) if you try to use Linux on them… so you may have to be selective in what you purchase.
Back in 2008 my school were throwing away about 200 workstations, with monitors. We asked if we could buy some, but they told us no; they were being donated to a charity which ships them to Uganda.
I’m hoping these Chromebooks aren’t “recycled” but instead have a similar fate as those desktops from my school. I’m in Indonesia right now and could give away thousands of Chromebooks in a heartbeat.
What an absolute scam.
“They’re designed to be disposable,” Berg said.
How the fuck is this legal
Welcome to late stage capitalism. It’s the Wild West here, and everything is plastic.
Maybe the EU’s right to repair laws will have something to say about this?
Eh, how so, you can just install Linux on them last I heard.
Why would you just throw out something you can put an up to date OS on?
Yeah, but you cant expect your average teacher to know how to install or use Linux.
Really they should be selling them on or donating them to people in need?
They don’t need to have the teachers to install Linux (though that’d be welcome to do as part of classes). Just hand them over to a reputable IT that will get them ready and going with a good distro.
Please Teachers are some of the most highly educated dumb people we have During the COVID Remote Learning they didn’t even know what streaming was much less were competent enough to do it Their students know more about streaming and how to broadcast a stream A greatly wasted resource The Smart Board my district has in every classroom are capable and setup for remote learning then sat there unused
Chromebooks are nothing but junk thin clients Schools need to invest in real laptops on a rolling maintenance and replacement schedule
Chromebooks are just budget-spec laptops. Hardware-wise, they ought to be fine for anything a K-12 student needs to do on a day-to-day basis (and for anything they can’t do on it, it’s probably a good teaching point for them to learn how to use a server or VM or cloud instance).
This is a business decision on Google’s part because they sold the machines at low or negative profit in order to build what they thought would be an ongoing revenue stream for them, which has not seemed to materialize.
OTOH, the real questions should not be aimed at Google, as much as it was local schools who signed the contracts with them without considering the e-waste and other downstream effects of what they were signing up for. That’s the sort of thing that I think needs to be factored into municipal and corporate purchasing: it’s all focused on the immediate spend, not on the long-term cost (and in the case especially of a municipality, that should be the cost to the community at large).
But hey… I bet a lot of them are going to turn up on eBay. As in the 90s when corporations were turning over hardware every 18-24 months, someone else’s poor decisionmaking can be a great subsidy for hobbyists. Not good for the planet, though.
