“Absurd”: Google, Amazon rebuked over unsupported Chromebooks still for sale

I thought the whole point of Chromebooks was that they were essentially thin clients for the web, or Google services in general. That they have such short expiry dates seems absurd.<p><i>iPads</i> are supported for longer. (And at &lt;$500, not much more expensive.)

Meanwhile, I&#x27;m still sitting on my unsupported Google Pixel 3 without absolutely any reason to upgrade it besides &quot;Google decided to not give it any more security updates&quot;. There&#x27;s nothing on newer phones that I want, this one works just fine, even its battery levels! Why, oh why!?

I bought a reconditioned Lenovo Chromebook for my parents last Christmas, and I kid you not that black plastic sheets had been applied to conceal the scratches on the case.<p>Of course, the software was entirely out of support when I brought the device up and logged in.<p><i>Avoid used Chromebooks at all costs.</i>

The Chromebook death date is absurd in general. I bought my mom one a while ago and then she had to basically get rid of it when it was perfectly fine.

Don&#x27;t throw away your unsupported Chromebook&#x2F;box, you can unlock it and install whichever OS would be compatible with similar architecture PCs, making them a lot more versatile and powerful compared to those running ChromeOS.<p>More information here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mrchromebox.tech&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mrchromebox.tech&#x2F;</a>

Can confirm, my parents bought me a Chromebook off of Amazon, and looking at the ChromeOS version, it apparently was out of support for a year. We had to return it, along with all of the three other Chromebooks my parents bought, due to defects on all of them (scratched screen, dead battery, etc.)

Honest question, don’t we see this constantly with Amazon AND news sites that constantly post “deals” on computers? “Buy this MacBook Air for $500 off!” But they never mention its from 2015 and will be not supported by MacOS much longer. Or you’ll constantly see deals like this on Windows laptops with 4th gen intel processors or refurbished business laptops.<p>In general nothing is changing for me. I still have to babysit EVERYONE I know through the computer buying process so that they don’t get screwed over.

Cloud-dependent goods should be required to carry an expiration date right on the package.

TBH, I&#x27;ve never understood why they don&#x27;t just decouple the browser from the OS and keep providing browser updates for as long as possible.<p>They wouldn&#x27;t update the base kernel, but they&#x27;d be no less secure than the average windows box.

This makes me think that Google is going to kill the ChromeBook project. It’s not making them much money (if any). Since it’s just a marketing spend for the small laptop market, they should care about PR.<p>But they don’t care about PR as evidenced by this stupidity that makes Google look like stupid engineers who can’t support their product.<p>And the prices are high. $500 for a “new” Chromebook mode from 5 years ago is madness.<p>I give them 5 years until they just kill it all. If we’re lucky they’ll make some bogus foundation that will give it a few years to limp on.

I&#x27;ve spent a fair amount of time messing with the ChromiumOS source tree and I think Google&#x27;s EOL dates mostly coincide with dropping support for older kernels. Hardware vendors only ship drivers and patches for the LTS kernel at the time the device is built, they don&#x27;t test or port those patches to newer kernels.<p>OEMs don&#x27;t want to spend time&#x2F;money on kernel updates for old devices. They&#x27;d rather sell you a new one.

This is a disastrous situation in terms of e-waste, if we consider how long laptops can survive when using a reasonable software stack.<p>With most Linux setups, web browsing on extremely JS-heavy websites is the only area where you might feel considerable differences between a new laptop and one from 7-10 years ago.

Does the accounting math on the value of having those Chromebooks still running include the value of retaining that user of you&#x27;re-the-product advertising and general stickiness?<p>Or does the math say they&#x27;d probably keep that user, no matter what device that user uses (at least for now, though over time Apple or MS could edge out Google services with their own), and that turning old Chromebooks into insecure&#x2F;irresponsible bricks helps generate revenue from sales of new Chromebooks, and keeps manufacturing partners happy?

Shit like this is why I went full Apple after using android for 10 years or so. You pay a premium for Apple products but at least you get the proper support and build quality. I have an iPhone 12 Pro that’s coming up on 3 years. I have zero desire to upgrade it and I have feeling it’ll last at least another 3 years.

Would be great if EOL models could be officially transitioned to ChromeOS Flex in some way.

The Chromebooks no longer get updates, but how long can they keep on working usably? The article doesn&#x27;t convey enough detail about this difference, or the story is making it sound like the laptops will die on that day.

That some of these cost as little as $69 brand new is alarming to me. Tech that cheap is usually destined to become e-waste. Used models that were more expensive than that when new are better for the planet and the user.