Chromebook Expiry Dates 9.4 MILLION POUNDS OF WASTE
Devices may continue to function, but they could become less reliable over time. More importantly, they won’t receive any more security updates, potentially leaving them vulnerable to unpatched exploits.
Chromebooks were first introduced in 2017
Chromebooks were sold to schools with the tagine that they would be great for classrooms. A Chromebooks limitation was that it was not a laptop, and this caused many Chromebooks to be returned as people around the world purchased them, mistaking them for windows capable machines.
How do I install my software? Someone asks. You can’t.
As time went on, Chromebooks were dissected. Linux was usable on them as a variant on Crouton’s models or (Chromium OS Universal Chroot Environment). Meanwhile, Google started to support the Google play store on some Chromebook models.
But the death timer in them keeps ticking.
Then came Neverware
Neveware was founded in 2010, and it had one mission. Allow people to use a Linux variant similar to Chromebooks on any old (pre-existing windows) computer. neverware is responsible for breathing life into many old computers
With Neverware, you could install the OS, and suddenly, an old computer that couldn’t install windows seven could still be useable for many people. It was and is pure software magic. Neverware is for desktop machines and will not help you with a Chromebook past its expiry date.
At the time of this article being written, Google had not yet acquired Neverware. But now that they have it makes the next point even more potent.
All Chromebooks have a death date in them.
Every Chromebook you have bought has an ‘Expiration Date.”
This was called Google’s End of Life Policy before being renamed to Auto Update Policy. For brevity, it will be referred to as AUE (Google’s term for autoUpdateExpiration)
https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366
While Google has extended the life of several models, the point still stands.
There are zero reasons for any Chromebook to have an expiry date.
None. Zero. Zilch. It’s an artificial death keel for the product you pushed to sell.
The software is owned by Google on a Chromebook.
Who built the computer? (we won’t get into that)
What software does it run? Chrome OS, a Google product.
What browser? Google Chrome
Where does it get its updates? Google.
And what happens when the expiration date hits zero?
Well, you can continue using the device, but you won’t get any security patches.
WHY? this is stupid
Google can’t claim they can’t support it as they wanted to support web apps in the first place.
they can’t claim they don’t have system-level permission access to change the settings because flags exist and the system gets it’s updates form Google
Google’s software updates itself automatically in the background while you’re using your Chromebook; the system won’t pester you to reboot or make you wait while it applies new software at startup (with the exception being the very first time you power up and sign into a new Chrome OS device) Google -Sep 27, 2018
So what is the reason for this stupidity? My guess is profit. Maybe pure laziness? But let us move onto a fix.
This built-in obsolescence was designed precovid-19 with profit in mind and has no place in the next generation.
There is no reason to make fully working devices not to receive security patches.
Google does seem to be doing something to fix this with something called Lacros, but how google is fixing this makes little sense.
The basic approach is to rename the existing binary to ash-chrome, with minimal changes. We then take the Linux-chrome binary, improve its Wayland support, make it act like the web browser on Chrome OS, and ship that as the lacros-chrome binary.
My understanding of this is that Google is trying to separate the Chrome OS operating system from the Chrome web browser. Why? When a
Chromebook reaches ‘auto expiry update’ (i.e., when Google will no longer provide Chrome OS updates for a device), the Chrome web browser itself will continue to be updated for free — just like Chrome on a Windows or Mac OS device. That way, even though the OS won’t be updated, the browser will.
But why?
Why not just erase the expiry date and provide security patches?
Once a Chromebook expires, you no longer get updates. Period. Ever.
This means that every person who Google encouraged to buy a Chromebook is faced with what to do with it.
THIS IS 9.4 MILLION POUNDS OF WASTE GOOGLE HAS CREATED BY CREATING A VIRTUAL DEATH FLAG IN THEIR OWN PRODUCT.
Chromebooks can not run Windows, meaning customers do not have much of choice.
Continue to use a Chromebook that has no security updates, or buy a new device.
Not everyone has the tech skill to install a variant of Linux onto their device so they can continue to use a Chromebook, which promised simplicity, ease of use, and background updates.
Google has, as mentioned since this article was being written, purchased Neverware.
Neverware was a software that allowed you to breathe new life into old computers by installing a version of Linux that looked and felt very much like a Chromebook.
and Neverware provided security updates. (CloudReady)
So Google, what’s your excuse?
You bought them, and I wait with baited breathe to see what happens next.
There is no reason to make fully working devices not receive security patches when you control the software.
Delete the expiry dates.
