[GTALUG] Chromebook death dates

[Alex Kink]

Google support page listing AUE dates for every make/model:

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366

Surprisingly some of them get updates up until 2032.


> On May 29, 2023, at 11:19, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:
> 
> | From: Stewart C. Russell via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
> | 
> | TIL that Chromebooks brick themselves when they hit a hard-coded date: the
> | date when Google stops providing updates:
> | https://coloradosun.com/2023/05/26/colorado-schools-chromebooks-churn-outdated/
> | 
> | The article's about Denver Public School District, who are finding a whole lot
> | of their Chromebooks bought during pandemic are running out of life. The
> | environmental and cost impacts are huge.
> 
> [James' reply has detailed useful information.]
> 
> All commercial OSes sunset old hardware.  Only ChromeBooks declare that 
> date when the systems are first available.  (It would be good if support 
> lifetimes were longer).
> 
> The article is quite confused.  I think that this is what it really
> means
> 
> - after AUE (Auto Update Expiration) the devices still work but there is
>  no promise of security updates.
> 
> - the school board seems to have a policy that says devices without
>  security updates must be banned from their network.  I think that
>  that is a wise policy but it isn't the same as saying that the
>  devices are bricked.
> 
> - the school board bought a lot of units at the same time so many are
>  losing support at the same time.
> 
> - (speculation) perhaps the school board bought older models of
>  ChromeBooks because they were cheaper, even though their AUE was
>  sooner than newer models.  I always check the AUE before I buy a
>  ChromeBook
> 
> ================
> 
> [The rest of this is meandering discourse supporting the above.  Feel
> free to ignore.]
> 
> I certainly have a ChromeBook that no longer gets updates.  Annoying.
> But it still works (last I checked, well after support stopped).  I
> don't use it because:
> 
> - I bought it to run Linux but I never got it to do so (Giles has the
>  same model and he did get it to run Linux).
> 
> - I have newer ChromeBooks with much nicer features
> 
> - (probably) too many web sites require more resources
> 
> - I don't like browsing with known security problems
> 
> The actual claim in the article gets narrowed down to:
> 
> 	An arsenal of Chromebooks that can’t keep up with new software or 
> 	that shut students out from the websites they rely on will 
> 	essentially become obsolete, leading to both significant costs for 
> 	districts and environmental hazards — issues highlighted in the 
> 	April report.
> 
> What software can they not keep up with?  ChromeBooks really don't
> have many applications.  Things I can imagine:
> 
> - school policy that forbids using stale browsers (since they will
>  have known vulnerabilities)
> 
> - new ciphers or CoDecs that are not supported (probably too soon for
>  that)
> 
> - new browser features like Web Assembly (WASM).  These seem pretty
>  unimportant.
> 
> - modern Chromebooks support Android apps but old ones don't.
>  But I'm pretty sure that that transition was years before the
>  pandemic so I don't think that it would apply to a fleet of
>  ChromeBooks bought for the pandemic.
> 
> Much later in the article:
> 
> 	“My role is to get as much as we can out of these devices before 
> 	we’re no longer able to have them on our network,” Dodge said, 
> 	adding that Chromebooks that can’t receive security updates can 
> 	pose threats to the district’s network.
> 
> This certainly sounds as though the ChromeBooks still work but no
> longer are considered secure by the school board.  I actually think
> that is an appropriate policy.
> 
> Windows has been pretty good in recent years as far as providing free
> updates and supporting old hardware.  Microsoft is changing this: Win
> 10 support disappears in October 2025 (if I remember correctly) and
> Microsoft policy is that old computers are not supported (for a
> definition of "old" that we need not go into; most of my computers are
> "old").  I expect that most school Windows systems are old.  Oh, and
> Windows is hard/impossible to keep secure, even with updates
> (especially in the hands of students).
> 
> iPads and Android tablets also fall out of support.  I don't think
> either come with a promise of updates until a declared date.  So they
> are inferior to ChromeBooks in this issue.
> 
> The greatest longevity is a Linux system.  I'm pretty sure that the
> school would not replace ChromeBooks with Linux systems.
> 
> So: I would think that this is stupid reporting but a useful but partial
> Public Service Announcement.
> 
> Certainly the school board should have known the support life when
> they purchased the ChromeBooks and planned for that life cycle.  No
> other OS provides as clear a statement of support lifetime up front.
> ---
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