Remembering all those times Google said it was committed to Stadia / People have been wondering if Stadia would stick around basically since it launched. Google had offered plenty of reassurances,...
Those weren't commitments, they were vague assurances. I'm pretty confident Google will honor the 10 years if they say so, as long as the company is still up and running. Google may kill products...
Those weren't commitments, they were vague assurances. I'm pretty confident Google will honor the 10 years if they say so, as long as the company is still up and running. Google may kill products left and right, but they honor their commitments while doing so. The Stadia end-of-life support was also above-and-beyond, fully refunding consumers of their purchases.
When Google first announced that Chromebooks would be getting compatibility for Android apps, they specifically listed a number of models that would be getting that feature. I bought one of them,...
When Google first announced that Chromebooks would be getting compatibility for Android apps, they specifically listed a number of models that would be getting that feature. I bought one of them, and Google still has yet to add Android app support to it.
The amount of skepticism in this comment section is unfounded. Chromebook has offered 7 years of updates forever, all they’re doing is extending it by another three years. They have always stood...
The amount of skepticism in this comment section is unfounded. Chromebook has offered 7 years of updates forever, all they’re doing is extending it by another three years. They have always stood by their EOL promises.
I agree, generally, but the update period felt pretty short because older-model Chromebooks would still be on sale for years, so by the time the consumer bought one, it would be closer to its...
I agree, generally, but the update period felt pretty short because older-model Chromebooks would still be on sale for years, so by the time the consumer bought one, it would be closer to its "expiration date."
If you know to check the expiration date then you can avoid this.
To be devil’s advocate, Chromebooks are terrible performing machines, sometimes I think schools pick them to discourage kids from playing games on them. Do you really want to be using a machine...
To be devil’s advocate, Chromebooks are terrible performing machines, sometimes I think schools pick them to discourage kids from playing games on them. Do you really want to be using a machine that performed like a 10 year old machine when it was new 10 years from now?
My understanding is that Chromebook performance varies widely and the age of the machine doesn't really cover it. Tangentially relevant: I was using a 2010 iMac until this year, and the reason I...
My understanding is that Chromebook performance varies widely and the age of the machine doesn't really cover it.
Tangentially relevant: I was using a 2010 iMac until this year, and the reason I stopped was due to lack of software updates, not performance. I'm still using it as a monitor. I should put Linux on it.
That's different since it's a desktop and was fairly high-end when it was new (though not in graphics performance). I also have a MacBook Pro that I'm replacing because the camera broke, and battery needed replacing, and I'm not too sure about the keyboard. Maybe it could be fixed?
I had a 2013 Mac Mini (not the best regarded vintage) which gave up the ghost early this year, it has had the hard drive fail, which I replaced with a SATA SSD and was doing fine until (I think)...
I had a 2013 Mac Mini (not the best regarded vintage) which gave up the ghost early this year, it has had the hard drive fail, which I replaced with a SATA SSD and was doing fine until (I think) the power supply failed.
I thought about replacing it with a ARM mac mini but my other machines have kind of rotated, I built a big desktop machine and don’t feel the need to carry around a big laptop because I can RDP into my desktop from my iPad using Tailscale so now the laptop is doing the mini’s job. I am thinking about getting set up to develop for Apple Vision which that would help with but it seemed to make more sense to invest in older generation AR hardware since all those platforms just use Unity anyway.
Yep. I know they try really hard to convince people you have to get some expensive keyboard and case made just for iPads but I’ll let you in on the secret that you can get a cheap bluetooth...
Yep. I know they try really hard to convince people you have to get some expensive keyboard and case made just for iPads but I’ll let you in on the secret that you can get a cheap bluetooth keyboard and mouse and … it just works.
I’ve been using tablets like this for years, especially Amazon Fire Tablets before iPads supported mice. It’s fun to go to a hackathon and have a $70 kit that is sleeker than all the macbook pros and less lurid than the gaming laptops and is backed by a cloud machine with 4x the CPUs.
Okay, that makes sense. You need a stand, too, right? At that point, it's a desktop computer terminal. The newer iPads have USB, so maybe wired keyboards and mice would work too?
Okay, that makes sense. You need a stand, too, right? At that point, it's a desktop computer terminal. The newer iPads have USB, so maybe wired keyboards and mice would work too?
This is what my kit looks like https://mastodon.social/@UP8/110555057135418185 The keyboard I have is big and ugly but it has a groove at the top that serves as a stand. Back in the Fire Tablet...
The keyboard I have is big and ugly but it has a groove at the top that serves as a stand. Back in the Fire Tablet days my stand was a V-shaped folding piece of plastic that should have cost $2 but it was probably a little more than that.
One advantage a laptop has is that you can use it while lying on the couch or something like that. A tablet with a stand does need a table, desk or other flat surface.
For a while I had a $99 Windows tablet that wasn't very powerful and didn't last very long but really worked w/ the bluetooth mouse and keyboard.
I just can't understand the level of confusion that was brought to the marketplace by "convertible" laptops, Surfaces, Yoga, etc. I mean, they only sold a handful of them but they had to change the in-flight announcements on planes over them.
My anecdote alone, I've interacted with other Chromebooks that were below par for sure. I bought the Samsung Chromebook with 16gb of RAM for like $350 when the Chromebooks first came out a little...
My anecdote alone, I've interacted with other Chromebooks that were below par for sure.
I bought the Samsung Chromebook with 16gb of RAM for like $350 when the Chromebooks first came out a little over a decade ago. I used it when I went to school then and I am using it now when I'm going to school to advance my education again.
I have done web work using WordPress, graphic work with Canva, and used it for a lot of reading and writing and the battery life is still insane.
I know they're not for everyone, but mine is still not low performance and if I'm doing anything that requires watching videos, reading text, doing discussion boards, and web based apps, it is still getting the job done and I can't bring myself to get rid of it.
It's not my daily driver for sure. But it is my clutch laptop for casual web browsing.
You’re right, if you get one that’s a rung or two up from the bottom they can be pretty good, and you really can do an awful lot of computing with just the web. My son even used to play this game...
You’re right, if you get one that’s a rung or two up from the bottom they can be pretty good, and you really can do an awful lot of computing with just the web. My son even used to play this game at school:
Not to be too rude but you really think schools care about the ability of playing games than they do about the cost of computers for their students? I can't really imagine a school board's...
I think schools pick them to discourage kids from playing games on them
Not to be too rude but you really think schools care about the ability of playing games than they do about the cost of computers for their students? I can't really imagine a school board's thinking process "hmmm, we can get these $200 Chromebooks for our students on which they can't play video games, or we can get last year's Macbook Airs for $125 which can be used for anything really, yeah, let's go with the one where they can't play video games on."
If they could get a full enterprise-level windows laptop for $198 even though you can play whatever they want on it, they would pick that over the $200 Chromebook because they're saving $2.
Interesting, this is the first time I've heard of Debian - a rather unadventurous Google search tells me it's an open source OS. If you don't mind, why do you prefer Debian / some advantages to...
Interesting, this is the first time I've heard of Debian - a rather unadventurous Google search tells me it's an open source OS.
If you don't mind, why do you prefer Debian / some advantages to it? Is the fact it's open source the reason why you said you can always rely on it?
One of Debian's biggest advantages is that it's very stable. The developers test it very carefully and only publish bug fixes inbetween major releases - meaning they will never push half-baked...
One of Debian's biggest advantages is that it's very stable. The developers test it very carefully and only publish bug fixes inbetween major releases - meaning they will never push half-baked features or rushed developments just to meet a deadline or something. You can always rely that your Debian 11 install will look and act the same way from the day you installed it until the end of its lifecycle (or upgrade).
It also helps that it's free, open-source, and completely lightweight and free of bloatware. Since there are no corporate interests behind it, there is no telemetry, data collection or advertising.
However, it isn't compatible with all Windows software, so you need to be able to deal with that and be willing to look for alternatives.
Man, this is lame as shit. I've bought my (released in 2017) Samsung Chromebook 3 in 2018, and it stopped receiving updates in 2022. No updates means no new Android versions, no new Chrome...
Man, this is lame as shit. I've bought my (released in 2017) Samsung Chromebook 3 in 2018, and it stopped receiving updates in 2022. No updates means no new Android versions, no new Chrome versions (!!!), no new security updates, no Linux updates, etc. No updates to the web browser means it slowly falls behind as bugs are fixed and features are added to the web. I know this little Celeron machine isn't quick, but it was my main machine from 2018-2019 and I had a derivative of Ubuntu on it called GalliumOS made for Chromebooks. Today, that no longer exists since the main distros support Chromebooks pretty well. I have Arch on it, I use it for YouTube, Spotify, Lyrics, Parsec streaming, Vampire Survivors and Rogue Legacy and my Chromebook will continue to live many, many years past its expiration date a year ago.
Obviously 10 years is a lot better than 5 years, but these devices shouldn't have these sort of expiration date anyway. I could've thrown away my Chromebook, but I didn't thanks to the alternatives I had. But for others who aren't as knowledgeable about these alternatives, their only choices are: use an outdated system or throw it in the dumpster.
Google’s blog post is here. This seems like unnecessarily complicated legal language, but perhaps I’m missing some subtlety: A platform released in 2021 will be three years old in 2024, so what...
This seems like unnecessarily complicated legal language, but perhaps I’m missing some subtlety:
Starting in 2024, if you have Chromebooks that were released from 2021 onwards, you’ll automatically get 10 years of updates. For Chromebooks released before 2021 and already in use, users and IT admins will have the option to extend automatic updates to 10 years from the platform’s release (after they receive their last automatic update).
A platform released in 2021 will be three years old in 2024, so what does the “starting in 2024” clause add, versus just saying that every platform is supported for 10 years? Does that make it until 2034, which is actually 13 years from 2021?
Oh well, it’s good news that they will be supported for a long time.
Remembering all those times Google said it was committed to Stadia / People have been wondering if Stadia would stick around basically since it launched. Google had offered plenty of reassurances, but turns out that they didn’t mean much.
Those weren't commitments, they were vague assurances. I'm pretty confident Google will honor the 10 years if they say so, as long as the company is still up and running. Google may kill products left and right, but they honor their commitments while doing so. The Stadia end-of-life support was also above-and-beyond, fully refunding consumers of their purchases.
When Google first announced that Chromebooks would be getting compatibility for Android apps, they specifically listed a number of models that would be getting that feature. I bought one of them, and Google still has yet to add Android app support to it.
Google's word means absolutely nothing.
There’s two things that are consistent, death and Google reneging on promises.
The amount of skepticism in this comment section is unfounded. Chromebook has offered 7 years of updates forever, all they’re doing is extending it by another three years. They have always stood by their EOL promises.
I agree, generally, but the update period felt pretty short because older-model Chromebooks would still be on sale for years, so by the time the consumer bought one, it would be closer to its "expiration date."
If you know to check the expiration date then you can avoid this.
To be devil’s advocate, Chromebooks are terrible performing machines, sometimes I think schools pick them to discourage kids from playing games on them. Do you really want to be using a machine that performed like a 10 year old machine when it was new 10 years from now?
My understanding is that Chromebook performance varies widely and the age of the machine doesn't really cover it.
Tangentially relevant: I was using a 2010 iMac until this year, and the reason I stopped was due to lack of software updates, not performance. I'm still using it as a monitor. I should put Linux on it.
That's different since it's a desktop and was fairly high-end when it was new (though not in graphics performance). I also have a MacBook Pro that I'm replacing because the camera broke, and battery needed replacing, and I'm not too sure about the keyboard. Maybe it could be fixed?
I had a 2013 Mac Mini (not the best regarded vintage) which gave up the ghost early this year, it has had the hard drive fail, which I replaced with a SATA SSD and was doing fine until (I think) the power supply failed.
I thought about replacing it with a ARM mac mini but my other machines have kind of rotated, I built a big desktop machine and don’t feel the need to carry around a big laptop because I can RDP into my desktop from my iPad using Tailscale so now the laptop is doing the mini’s job. I am thinking about getting set up to develop for Apple Vision which that would help with but it seemed to make more sense to invest in older generation AR hardware since all those platforms just use Unity anyway.
Huh. Ergonomically, are you finding the iPad to be a reasonable "dumb terminal" to use with your main machine? I assume you have a keyboard for it?
Yep. I know they try really hard to convince people you have to get some expensive keyboard and case made just for iPads but I’ll let you in on the secret that you can get a cheap bluetooth keyboard and mouse and … it just works.
I’ve been using tablets like this for years, especially Amazon Fire Tablets before iPads supported mice. It’s fun to go to a hackathon and have a $70 kit that is sleeker than all the macbook pros and less lurid than the gaming laptops and is backed by a cloud machine with 4x the CPUs.
Okay, that makes sense. You need a stand, too, right? At that point, it's a desktop computer terminal. The newer iPads have USB, so maybe wired keyboards and mice would work too?
This is what my kit looks like
https://mastodon.social/@UP8/110555057135418185
The keyboard I have is big and ugly but it has a groove at the top that serves as a stand. Back in the Fire Tablet days my stand was a V-shaped folding piece of plastic that should have cost $2 but it was probably a little more than that.
One advantage a laptop has is that you can use it while lying on the couch or something like that. A tablet with a stand does need a table, desk or other flat surface.
For a while I had a $99 Windows tablet that wasn't very powerful and didn't last very long but really worked w/ the bluetooth mouse and keyboard.
I just can't understand the level of confusion that was brought to the marketplace by "convertible" laptops, Surfaces, Yoga, etc. I mean, they only sold a handful of them but they had to change the in-flight announcements on planes over them.
My anecdote alone, I've interacted with other Chromebooks that were below par for sure.
I bought the Samsung Chromebook with 16gb of RAM for like $350 when the Chromebooks first came out a little over a decade ago. I used it when I went to school then and I am using it now when I'm going to school to advance my education again.
I have done web work using WordPress, graphic work with Canva, and used it for a lot of reading and writing and the battery life is still insane.
I know they're not for everyone, but mine is still not low performance and if I'm doing anything that requires watching videos, reading text, doing discussion boards, and web based apps, it is still getting the job done and I can't bring myself to get rid of it.
It's not my daily driver for sure. But it is my clutch laptop for casual web browsing.
Link of product for reference: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Chromebook-Wi-Fi-11-6-Inch-Model/dp/B009LL9VDG
You’re right, if you get one that’s a rung or two up from the bottom they can be pretty good, and you really can do an awful lot of computing with just the web. My son even used to play this game at school:
https://krunker.io/
Not to be too rude but you really think schools care about the ability of playing games than they do about the cost of computers for their students? I can't really imagine a school board's thinking process "hmmm, we can get these $200 Chromebooks for our students on which they can't play video games, or we can get last year's Macbook Airs for $125 which can be used for anything really, yeah, let's go with the one where they can't play video games on."
If they could get a full enterprise-level windows laptop for $198 even though you can play whatever they want on it, they would pick that over the $200 Chromebook because they're saving $2.
Interesting, this is the first time I've heard of Debian - a rather unadventurous Google search tells me it's an open source OS.
If you don't mind, why do you prefer Debian / some advantages to it? Is the fact it's open source the reason why you said you can always rely on it?
Thanks
One of Debian's biggest advantages is that it's very stable. The developers test it very carefully and only publish bug fixes inbetween major releases - meaning they will never push half-baked features or rushed developments just to meet a deadline or something. You can always rely that your Debian 11 install will look and act the same way from the day you installed it until the end of its lifecycle (or upgrade).
It also helps that it's free, open-source, and completely lightweight and free of bloatware. Since there are no corporate interests behind it, there is no telemetry, data collection or advertising.
However, it isn't compatible with all Windows software, so you need to be able to deal with that and be willing to look for alternatives.
Thank you for the informative response, appreciate it!
And if you will ever get into trouble with Debian, you have us - other users who are very willing to help you on any issue regarding your Debian :)
Man, this is lame as shit. I've bought my (released in 2017) Samsung Chromebook 3 in 2018, and it stopped receiving updates in 2022. No updates means no new Android versions, no new Chrome versions (!!!), no new security updates, no Linux updates, etc. No updates to the web browser means it slowly falls behind as bugs are fixed and features are added to the web. I know this little Celeron machine isn't quick, but it was my main machine from 2018-2019 and I had a derivative of Ubuntu on it called GalliumOS made for Chromebooks. Today, that no longer exists since the main distros support Chromebooks pretty well. I have Arch on it, I use it for YouTube, Spotify, Lyrics, Parsec streaming, Vampire Survivors and Rogue Legacy and my Chromebook will continue to live many, many years past its expiration date a year ago.
Obviously 10 years is a lot better than 5 years, but these devices shouldn't have these sort of expiration date anyway. I could've thrown away my Chromebook, but I didn't thanks to the alternatives I had. But for others who aren't as knowledgeable about these alternatives, their only choices are: use an outdated system or throw it in the dumpster.
Google’s blog post is here.
This seems like unnecessarily complicated legal language, but perhaps I’m missing some subtlety:
A platform released in 2021 will be three years old in 2024, so what does the “starting in 2024” clause add, versus just saying that every platform is supported for 10 years? Does that make it until 2034, which is actually 13 years from 2021?
Oh well, it’s good news that they will be supported for a long time.