Security is our number one priority. Chromebooks get automatic updates every four weeks that make your laptop more secure and help it last longer. And starting next year, we’re extending those automatic updates so your Chromebook gets enhanced security, stability and features for 10 years after the platform was released.
A platform is a series of components that are designed to work together — something a manufacturer selects for any given Chromebook. To ensure compatibility with our updates, we work with all the component manufacturers within a platform (for things like the processor and Wi-Fi) to develop and test the software on every single Chromebook.
Starting in 2024, if you have Chromebooks that were released from 2021 onwards, you’ll automatically get 10 years of updates. For Chromebooks released before 2021 and already in use, users and IT admins will have the option to extend automatic updates to 10 years from the platform’s release (after they receive their last automatic update).
A good thing… Without any additional strings other than are already attached to a Chromebook? This can’t be.
In all seriousness, ten years of updates for laptops that are often quite cheap and disposable is simply good news, and ensures that Chromebooks can be passed on for longer than they could before.
I have watched Google lose interest in far to many products to think they will honour 10 years of genuine support. The devil will be in what gets 10 years of updates? Just the browser? The whole OS? The ecosystem and associated services? How often can you expect updates?
I expect come a few years those laptops will be dead weights but still getting an update every few months pushed out for critical bugs
Isnt chromeos just linux with a forced dependency on google tech?
I do not mind, i mean they are cheap, and most of them can be jailbreaked to run regular debian, i am not the target audience.
For students with no concept of backing up, it is a godsend, for me it is a devil in disguise. (i still back up on physical media, mostly tape)
In sweden a new chromebook costs around 1100SEK (100USD) and expecting 10 years of support is kinda rediculous at that price level when phone sales companies get away with three 3year support contracts for phones that cost 23k SEK (over 2000USD) without contracts.
In sweden the norm is no longer to get your phone from the service provider, only about 32% is foolish enough to do so, or they get it from work for free. (hidden cost is that they expect you to always be available when they call). The rest has settled on either pay on use or settle after usage models offered by most operators.
just for comparison, a small small bag of rice in sweden is 5USD, a beer at a pub is 9USD and meat is rediculously expensive.
There has never been a shortage of toilet paper though, and that is about the only cheap thing in sweden you’ll ever find. 0.0001SEK per meter.
Oh 100% its ¨just linux¨ but (from my understanding) its a distro/fork so they dont just get patches for free from someone else. So updates take work, development and testing. These all cost money and I imagine Google will get bored and do the bare legal minimum (which may be nothing) if they don´t get a large enough market share to monetise via ads.
Just look at the recent Pixel Pass subscription which only lasted a couple of years.
I can’t believe that this wasn’t related to Apple’s reported entry into the market next year. I think if Apple made a concerted effort they might be able to take some market share away. Ipads were a flop in the classroom as were windows PC’s. Chromebooks hit the sweet spot of affordability and ease of administration and security. Every school in my area has them for their kids. These are schools that started out with ipads years ago. Google kills products off, but Apple also has a history of just not continuing with the effort the school market should have been Apple’s, but they didn’t care enough.
Bill Shooter of Bul,
Affordability is a weak spot for apple, haha. They were never going to be competitive against cheap chromebooks for most school districts trying to stretch their dollars worth. Maybe apple should have considered very steep school discounts to build up education marketshare? But it doesn’t look like apple currently cares about reaching those who aren’t ready to spend big money.
Our school district never had ipads. I think budgeting played a big factor in their technology choices. Chromebooks can offer what schools are looking for at a much lower price and I won’t fault them for that. The school labs run windows, I imagine they get a large discount over retail.
The strings are that those 10 years are from the time the platform first became available, not from purchase. Taking into account that Chromebooks have a really long shelf-life, since people don’t care what CPU a Chromebook has, you may be getting substantially less than 10 years,