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Google breaks promise to provide 10 years of updates to Chromebooks

355 points · 156 comments · speckx

  1. jezzamon · · focus · HN ↗
    Discussed a lot here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=49893653">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=49893653

    Seems to be more reasonable than this title suggests?

    Some comments: &quot;So they have introduced a major change and said any older Chromebooks bought going forward will only get 8. So its not a retrospective reduction for existing customers.&quot; (Edit: actually I think this comment is wrong, if you bought a Chromebook 1 year ago, you&#x27;d only get 9 years of ChromeOS updates)

    &quot;From my understanding of the article, it sounds like ChromeOS support is getting pared back for those devices, but the devices themselves should still be supported, albeit via a (planned but not yet in existence) migration path to GooglebookOS.&quot;

    1. hedora · · focus · HN ↗
      These devices are usually bought on contract, with lots of lock in.

      In particular, there are lots of schools getting screwed over financially. Maybe they’ll switch vendors, or use the money for education. Chromebook spending has a strong negative correlation with educational performance.

      As a parent, I am supposed to have control over my kids’ personal information, but the schools firehose all the most sensitive kids’ info they have to an unlawful marketing firm that I do not trust. How do I opt out?

      1. eitally · · focus · HN ↗
        Education contracts do not allow Google to use customer data for advertising.
        1. Scubabear68 · · focus · HN ↗
          Do you really think the engineering teams pour over those contracts when implementing new features?

          Every single time? I sincerely doubt it.

          Whatever logical business firewalls Google has between orgs for this kind of purpose seems pretty frail and thin from what I have seen reported.

          1. sulam · · focus · HN ↗
            This absolutely happens, there&#x27;s a set of teams whose job it is to make sure it happens every time a system is going to be handling customer data. It&#x27;s not left to the engineers to remember to do so.
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