Google ending ChromeOS support two years early

Google ending ChromeOS support two years early theregister.com

Rise of the Googlebook means ChromeOS users get eight years' support, not a decade

187 points•rbanffy•1 day ago•130 comments•

#chromeos #early #google #ending chromeos #chromeos support #google ending #support two #google ending chromeos

130 comments

TheqO1 day ago

    > Googlebooks are the Google's replacement for Chromebooks, the web-centric computers it launched in 2011 and which run ChromeOS....

    The newer Googlebook range uses more powerful processors than their predecessors, plus a new OS called Googlebook OS that bakes in Google’s Gemini AI – a product the Chocolate Factory is very keen to see succeed as the great AI land grab continues.

    ...If you buy a Chromebook today, updates will end in 2034 eight years into the future

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.

Sounds reasonable.

8 years is still a long time for a cheap Chromebook.

Kwpolska1 day ago

If you bought a Chromebook a month ago, updates for Chrome OS will also end in 8 years, not 10; Google promises you will get a new OS for the device [0]:

> ChromeOS devices will continue to receive regular updates and security patches through mid-2034. For qualifying devices purchased today whose 10-year support lifecycle extends beyond 2034, Google is committed to supporting your transition to Googlebook OS, with many devices offering direct migration paths.

[0] https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/16634428#zippy=%2...

gertrunde1 day ago

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.

Although tbh, I've not really used either in anger, so I can't really comment on if that is a raw deal or not. (Beyond the usual dislike of change that will always be encountered).

So agreed, that sounds reasonable.

JimDabell1 day ago

Large organisations don’t buy a single batch of machines then call it a day. If an organisation standardised on Chromebooks because of the support period, they will still need to buy new machines and those won’t get the support period they had expected.

gegtik1 day ago

are you saying google is betraying them unless they sell new chromebooks with 10y chromeOS contracts going forward until the heat death of the universe?

steveBK1231 day ago

Extremely sarcastic take but - shouldn't the 10x productivity boost of LLMs like their own in-house Gemini make maintaining software easier?

Nothing in terms of feature release / quality / maintenance I am seeing out Big Software would lead me to believe there's been any productivity increase.

20k1 day ago

Apparently, you aren't meant to use data, measure anything, or look at the actual end result of how software is really being released. Line Go Up

macoslulz1 day ago

They can't even add "respect the user's preferred language" to the AI assist prompt in Google Search - I've reported it countless times. Turns out, looking up local places/names/etc, does not mean I speak that language. They can't seem to add light/dark support to Gmail despite prefers-color-scheme CSS media feature being present in browsers for at least 6 years). I have zero remaining faith in Google's ability to do anything.

gherkinnn1 day ago

Google appears to be especially bad at this (looking at you, auto-dubbing YouTube) and countless others fail as well.

What is it though? Is it a harder problem than I think it is or is Conway's law getting the better of the G?

sidewndr461 day ago

Gemini answers me in Mandarin quite often. In case their is any wonder about me: I grew up in the US and my first language is English.

doomslice1 day ago

Google's internal tooling for this is actually way behind what's available to the general public (they just got access to Claude though!)

nicce1 day ago

Imagine Anthropic for using Gemini internally and anticipating for it

underlipton1 day ago

Uh oh. I watched Person of Interest, I know how this goes down.

TiredOfLife1 day ago

Gemini is good only at benchmarks. In actual usage it sometimes approaches chatjimmy in quality

phoghed1 day ago

There would still need to be money to make from doing so and a will to do it.

My company has a shitty old defunct group management portal that has been twice superseded and is finally getting shut down. But we have LLMs, why not maintain it in perpetuity? Because it's shit, nobody likes it, there are other options, it would still cost someone's time just to follow all the processes we have to do releases and keep things running, security testing, yada yada.

Adding more years of support to some shitty old thing is certainly going to cost them more than it makes them.

bryanlarsen1 day ago

> it’s hard to imagine many Chromebooks currently in service or acquired in the next year or two will still be in service come 2034

While there won't be many there definitely will be some; I know of an ~8 year old Chromebook currently in active use.

shiandow1 day ago

You can't just expect things to last years! Building stuff to last only benefits society and customers, it does nothing for shareholders!

hobo1231 day ago

Ending is better than mending!

TitaRusell1 day ago

Imagine if the pyramids were built by modern contractors... They wouldn't last a decade.

adrianmsmith1 day ago

Exactly.

I know plenty of people who use Apple products such as iPhones and Macs and have to stop using them and throw them into landfill basically because there are no further security updates, although the device works fine and is fast enough for their needs.

Shortening security updates absolutely has an environmental impact.

Kurtz791 day ago

This. I have an old 2012 Intel Retina Macbook Pro which is already several MacOS versions behind and I’m unable to update it through normal means any longer. It works fine and it still has the best looking screen of any laptop I ever owned.

I keep it at my parents’ house and I maybe use it 3/4 times per year, but it’s enough for my needs when I’m visiting and it feels wasteful to throw it away or store it for good. I fully understand that it is a 14yo machine and it is unreasonable for a company to support old hardware indefinitely, but still, it does feel like a waste.

mattkrause1 day ago

It's not a ton different on the Windows/android side. The TPM 2.0 requirement for Windows 11 took a lot of our work PCs out of the rotation.

benoau1 day ago

I wouldn't even say 8 years is "old" for a computer anymore, right around Intel's Haswell generation we crossed a threshold of cores and performance and computers became Good Enough. You can see it with Android and iOS tablets too they last a very long time, and of course Apple Silicon leaves no doubt.

MSFT_Edging1 day ago

I have a 12 year old Acer C720 that while obviously doesn't run chromeos anymore, it's still useful as a super durable 12'' linux machine.(thankfully it's intel based)

It road around in a backpack while cycling around campus, survived multiple bike spills, knocked off tables half a dozen times.

Really sad we can't get something like this anymore.

broodbucket1 day ago

Schools, sadly for the students.

theandrewbailey1 day ago

I work in e-waste recycling, and I can assure everyone that many schools issue Chromebooks to students.

bryanlarsen1 day ago

Chromebooks don't last anywhere close to 10 years in school; they get far too much abuse.

sjs3821 day ago

Of course they are.

One more datapoint to reference in the future when evaluating Google's long term promises and commitments. "No, we mean it this time."

abirch1 day ago

It seems myopic especially if Gemini is supposed to reduce labor costs with software development. 2034-36 would only be security updates.

FloatArtifact1 day ago

There's simply no real reason that a mobile device can't function as a desktop from a technical level either in software or hardware. Simply dock your phone or it could be even wireless. Boom! Go from mobile experience to desktop experience. It seems they want to cram the mobile experience into a traditional desktop environment (mouse and keyboard driven with windows paradigm). IOS and Android have not embraced desktop paradigm. We simply need a unified SDK to support both experiences and the store downloads the appropriate assets. We're beginning to see somewhat of these concepts with foldables phone coming into the market.

rcMgD2BwE72F1 day ago

I'm browsing from a Pixel 9 phone running GraphenOS phone, plugged into a 4K monitor, and paired with a bluetooth Logitech MX Vertical mouse and a MX Keys Mini keyboard. Works prefect. I don't miss my Macbook Air M5 much.

armadyl1 day ago

This is my dream, just waiting for the motorola with a stronger cpu/gpu and hopefully greater than 1080p resolution from AOSP Desktop Mode.

QuantumNomad_1 day ago

Apple having shown that the same CPU they use in some iPhones and iPads, Apple A18 Pro, worked perfectly well to build a laptop around running macOS, the MacBook Neo, should take the logical next leap in making an iPhone/laptop blend.

Make an iPhone and corresponding docking station, where the docking station is a MacBook shell + screen + touchpad + keyboard + battery that you slot the iPhone into in order to use the iPhone as a laptop. The slot you push the iPhone into would be reminiscent of the PCMCIA slots of old, but having the dimensions of the iPhone and connecting via ThunderBolt 5. When slotted into the shell, no part of the iPhone will extend outside of the shell. To eject, you push it in slightly and it pops out same way you push on a microSD card to eject it from many devices.

nostrademons1 day ago

That's sort of the point of the Googlebooks. They run Android internally, and then to get Android to support Googlebooks, they had to add/improve things like multi-window support, very large monitors, keyboards, mouse support, etc.

If you have a USB dock that your keyboard/mouse/display is plugged in to, you should be able to stick it in your Pixel phone's USB jack and get a desktop experience. Some of my team would actually test keyboard support that way, by plugging a keyboard into a tablet.

FloatArtifactabout 24 hours ago

Yeah, but why can't this be just stock part of Android? We should not need a separate OS or device to have this kind of experience.

IX-1031 day ago

From what I read that's the entire point of the whole Googlebook replacing Chromebook thing. The whole desktop is based on Android so all android phone and tablet apps are native. Naturally there will be SDK changes as some apps release versions optimized for desktop.

Google probably wants it so they can extend their app store empire to desktop apps and games.

kelvinjps101 day ago

Samsung DEX is basically this you can turn your phone into a desktop

Read the full thread on Hacker News →

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