I will admit that I had no idea of this issue until after I already owned 3 Chrome OS devices - at the start of this past summer. Leo never mentioned it, and I never saw it on any reviews.
I am glad that Google recently extended the end of life date on many devices, though.
These things essentially have a “consume before” date, just like food. This needs to be on the packaging.
When I look at Amazon.de, there are Chromebooks using 4 or 5 generation old Intel processors still being sold as new. Those devices probably have a year of being safe, before they are abandoned by Google, yet the retailers are still selling them for the full price.
If the packaging explicitly stated the end of support date, consumers would be more wary about buying older Chromebooks at full price. The market is so opaque that even an expert who knows what they are buying has to double check the specifications, to ensure they aren’t being fobbed off with old tat.
How is the typical Chromebook user, who basically can find the on/off switch, and that is the limit of their harware expertise, supposed to not end up with a lemon?
Edit: @Mistershipwreck the problem is, it wasn’t a well know phenomenon, until somebody who bought their parents Chromebooks last year found out that they were getting warning about end of support after less than a year. Then it hit the press big time, until that point, I doubt many people had really seen the problem or had been buying older equipment, either second hand or old stock from retailers.
We have also not had this problem in the “PC” arena until now. Windows has always worked on old hardware, Microsoft have always made a big deal about backwards compatibility. The PCs have usually died or have become so slow as to be unusable, before Windows stops getting updates.
My 2007 iMac still gets Windows 7 updates (Apple dropped OS X support for it in 2014).
Likewise I have 2 Sony Vaio laptops from 2010, both are still supported by Windows 10 and get monthly security updates, they both originally came with Windows 7.
Although I am thinking of repurposing them as Linux servers.
Absolutely agree. Being a Mac user, I gotta say this whole thing is complete news to me. I wonder how many Chromebook buyers/users are aware of this “expiration date” issue?
The potential wastefulness of this concerns me. My machines are all refurbed corporate laptops: my main work machine is 7 years old, and my day-to-day personal machines are 12 years old, all with max memory and SSDs. Windows 10 still supports them and runs quickly for my limited requirements (mostly MS Office & browsers) , and I’m pleased to be keeping them out of landfill for a while longer. I love the idea of a Chromebook, but by my standards the usable life is way too short.
Like I said - I had no idea before I owned two Chromebooks and a Chromebox. Yes, they need to do a better job letting people know this…
However - with the recent extension of the deadline date on my devices - I can live with the date now. Two of my three have have been extended to June 2025. My HP tablet Chromebook is still June 2024.