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Design quirks, limited parts, and other ways Chromebooks frustrate repairs

arstechnica.com

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Re: Design quirks, limited parts, and other ways Chromebooks frustrate repairs

#51

Post by dazc »

Retric wrote: post #40
dazc wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously, I'm not a school admin but I would wager replacing a fleet of cheap Chromebooks with Macbooks (or any big brand Windows machines) would not work out cheaper, or less burdensome, or anywhere close.

The issue is they where marketed and sold for an environment where they don’t work.

The original laptop for kids in a school environment was the Intel Classmate and that was a serious piece of crap.

Then came the iPad, less said about that the better.

Chromebooks are many times better than this and have the added benefit of being cheap and, dare I say it, disposable.

Re: Design quirks, limited parts, and other ways Chromebooks frustrate repairs

#52

Post by pjmlp »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #19
NikolaNovak wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My 2012 t420 runs windows 10 and is nowhere near out of support.

Lenovo won't sell you a new battery for it.

Plenty of other ones will gladly sell compatible ones.

Re: Design quirks, limited parts, and other ways Chromebooks frustrate repairs

#53

Post by easton »

izacus wrote: post #12
matheusmoreira wrote: post #3

It's weird to see Google getting picked on for this. Other manufacturers are a lot worse and provide a lot less guarantees about updates.

No they're not, remember that EoL Chromebooks don't even get Chrome update anymore. On other OSes, Chrome gets updated for more than a decade.

Google was working on a way to ship Chrome updates to older versions of Chrome OS, is that still not out yet?

https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/l....

Re: Design quirks, limited parts, and other ways Chromebooks frustrate repairs

#54

Post by jeffbee »

qbasic_forever wrote: post #50
nimbius wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yup. this "arent built to last" quip feels like a reinforcement effort from on high to ensure planned obsolescence doesnt encounter any defeat along the way. total malarkey. I run arch on a couple of chromebooks with wayland. the install path was pretty easy because under the hood these things are just computers. They last as long as you want them to because you decide what they do, not Google.

Yep and Linux usually runs perfectly well on Chromebooks since chrome OS is based on it so you rarely get weird bleeding edge opaque binary driver peripherals. My Acer Chromebook runs Arch too and everything works out of the box--wifi, sound, media buttons, etc. It's way better than getting Linux on a super cheap Windows laptop IMHO.

Wait. The whole reason that ChromeOS works correctly is because they are not doctrinaire about binary drivers. ChromeOS has working touchpads and working wifi and working webcams due to their acceptance of the need for vendor blobs.

Re: Design quirks, limited parts, and other ways Chromebooks frustrate repairs

#55

Post by jones6ofMont »

chasil wrote: post #18

Google should really be forced to unlock the firmware on all of their abandoned devices. I foolishly purchased my parents a "reconditioned" Google Chromebook from Lenovo. The device was covered in black plastic sheets to conceal scratches and markings on the casing. When we activated the device, it was out of support. I gave them a fresh HP Chromebook to replace it. Avoid "reconditioned" Chromebooks.

[dead]

Re: Design quirks, limited parts, and other ways Chromebooks frustrate repairs

#56

Post by qbasic_forever »

jeffbee wrote: post #54
qbasic_forever wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep and Linux usually runs perfectly well on Chromebooks since chrome OS is based on it so you rarely get weird bleeding edge opaque binary driver peripherals. My Acer Chromebook runs Arch too and everything works out of the box--wifi, sound, media buttons, etc. It's way better than getting Linux on a super cheap Windows laptop IMHO.

Wait. The whole reason that ChromeOS works correctly is because they are not doctrinaire about binary drivers. ChromeOS has working touchpads and working wifi and working webcams due to their acceptance of the need for vendor blobs.

Yeah but the peripheral has to have a Linux driver or support, and for a cheap laptop a manufacturer is definitely not going to hire someone to custom port a Windows driver to Linux. They're going to pull something off the shelf that already works with Linux.

Re: Design quirks, limited parts, and other ways Chromebooks frustrate repairs

#57

Post by Retric »

dazc wrote: post #51
Retric wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is they where marketed and sold for an environment where they don’t work.

The original laptop for kids in a school environment was the Intel Classmate and that was a serious piece of crap. Then came the iPad, less said about that the better. Chromebooks are many times better than this and have the added benefit of being cheap and, dare I say it, disposable.

Needing expensive parts or being forced to replace a Chromebook early means it’s no longer cheap.

US schools have spent over a billion dollars on Chromebook's, it’s a significant expenditure that isn’t lasting as long as expected.

Re: Design quirks, limited parts, and other ways Chromebooks frustrate repairs

#58

Post by carlivar »

dazc wrote: post #38
carlivar wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you have a data point of 2 Chromebooks versus the school I.T. admins in the article that manage thousands, and you think your sample size wins? How about the pointless bezel changes illustrated in the article? Drop your Chromebooks on the floor to crack the bezel, try to replace them, and get back to us for further data in your sample.

Obviously, I'm not a school admin but I would wager replacing a fleet of cheap Chromebooks with Macbooks (or any big brand Windows machines) would not work out cheaper, or less burdensome, or anywhere close.

The point is that it shouldn't have to be binary like this. Why can't there be less pointless parts changes and thus more parts availability?

Re: Design quirks, limited parts, and other ways Chromebooks frustrate repairs

#59

Post by matheusmoreira »

pjmlp wrote: post #46
matheusmoreira wrote: post #3

It's weird to see Google getting picked on for this. Other manufacturers are a lot worse and provide a lot less guarantees about updates.

My 2009 bought laptops keep getting updates.

Firmware updates?

Re: Design quirks, limited parts, and other ways Chromebooks frustrate repairs

#60

Post by jeffbee »

qbasic_forever wrote: post #56
jeffbee wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait. The whole reason that ChromeOS works correctly is because they are not doctrinaire about binary drivers. ChromeOS has working touchpads and working wifi and working webcams due to their acceptance of the need for vendor blobs.

Yeah but the peripheral has to have a Linux driver or support, and for a cheap laptop a manufacturer is definitely not going to hire someone to custom port a Windows driver to Linux. They're going to pull something off the shelf that already works with Linux.

But things like MIPI cameras don't work in any Linux other than ChromeOS. The open source partisans are still faffing around with their obsolete APIs, while ChromeOS discards the political aspect and just ships Intel's blob. That's why machines like the Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 10 are not on the ChromeOS Flex certified models list, and their webcams don't work in any other distro either, but there are tons of Chromebooks with MIPI cameras.
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