Google breaks promise to provide 10 years of updates to Chromebooks

We don’t have any details about what the upgrade path will look like and it probably hasn’t been implemented yet, so this is all speculative.

If they didn’t do an OS change, they could still evolve it a lot over 10 years. Chrome could evolve too. You’re trusting the vendor to not screw up your workflow either way.

The practical issue in this case appears to be that GoogleBooks branding is meant to indicate they are good at running Gemini and other Google AI technologies. Chromebook aren't.

I doubt the entity called Google is of one mind about any of this.

To be clear, this is only true because it’s been true for all screens.

Through your government. Maybe you could form a union strong enough but unlikely as you have more to lose than them, but both is a good idea.

Totally agree. Would love far fewer computers in schools.

And by this I mean being captive to App Store/Play Store, the weird “everything has to be inside Chrome” thing of Chromebook, the obtuse window-management contortions of iPad, etc. People expect to be able to install software of their choice on a real computer. I already have a smartphone. I don’t need a second giant one with a keyboard.

If they want to actually compete they should put their weight behind a real Linux distribution that works normally. Totally OK to add all the custom features they want, like running Android apps. But just don’t make it so weird.

(And no, developer-mode side loading doesn’t change any of that.)

All of their output is entirely dependent on internal product owners using Google products as stepping stones to ladder climb. Once they replaced a product, or did a giant 2.0 revamp, they move on and no one wants to maintain it.

In practice, if there has been some kind internal restructuring, the infrastructure required to keep those previous promises probably isn't there anymore. Try contacting Google support, I guess.

Also, unless such promises were put on paper in some kind of contract AND without the ever present "We reserve the right to change the terms of this agreement partially or fully in the future" fine line, it was just some kind of wishful thinking by whatever manager was in charge of the Chromebooks project at the time.

Let's be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if the product EULA says somewhere "This device is licensed to you, not sold. You are granted a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and personal license to use the device for your private, non-commercial use."

Chromebooks is on a legacy path, and whatever "promise" was made seems to be void. Realistically ran their numbers and are fully aware that the worst possible outcome is a 25$-voucher class action for a few thousand people.

Still way cheaper than having to support OS security and updates for ten years.

Apple promises all customers 5 years of hardware support past the last day the model was available for sale, and at least two years of limited hardware support thereafter.

In the UK, for iPhone 15 and later, Apple promises at least 5 years of software updates from the time that model was first offered for sale.

I would assume similar schedule outside the UK as well, but afaik it is only explicitly promised in the UK, due to regulatory requirements there.

For enterprise customers, Apple guarantee a minimum period of software security updates for macOS, but the exact period is kept confidential in the specific agreements.

Like the UK iPhone commitment, I assume the enterprise macOS schedule apply to all customers, and Apple just avoids publicly publishing it, I would guess to avoid some legal-induced headaches (which I personally think is the worst excuse, but I digress).