No security or feature updates, but selling as “new.” I guess they need to switch to Linux if able…
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Thirteen Chromebook models have met their death date since June 1 and won’t receive security updates or new features from Google anymore.
The US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) pointed this out in a press release Wednesday, sharing screenshots of the models:
The US PIRG’s release highlights eight ChromeOS devices from Asus, Acer, Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Samsung, all easily purchasable on Amazon despite their expirations.
The advocacy group’s latest release highlights how easy it is to buy expired laptops, which can lead to security threats, e-waste, and wasted money.
We have been tracking the specific Chromebook models listed in the June letter that recently expired this summer and were shocked to find them still for sale with no warnings.
Retailers need to make changes to protect customers, since Chromebook support expiration dates can be unclear if they’re not included on listing pages.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!
You are not the bot we deserved, but the bot we needed. And the but that we missed most of all!
You should be built into Lemmy. Posts would consist of link to original article and your summary
There should be a legal requirement to make documentation available for all unsupported Chromebooks to unlock the boot loader and allow for installing an alternative OS. Furthermore, they should be required to release engineering docs.
They should also be required to support it for X (exact time is up for debate) years after they stop selling it so you have some minimum amount of time that you know the device will be supported for no matter when you buy it.
And Android and whatever else.
You want to lock down bootloaders and installed software while you’re supporting it? It depends on how you manage it how much I like or dislike it. But any software on a device you don’t support should automatically enter public domain and you should be required to unlock it.
Agreed, though I thought that all ChromeOS devices could be bootloader unlocked.
That could very well be the case and I could be wrong. I kind of operated under the assumption that Chromebooks are heavily locked down.
@housepanther @Remontoire this but covering all devices
I thought they were updated for 8 years.
In other notes, you can apparently install Linux on them ok.
