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There’s no supply shortage of Chromebooks, you can buy them on Amazon and have them delivered Thursday. Maybe schools don’t have money allocated for this, but r

by lacker 6y ago

There’s no supply shortage of Chromebooks, you can buy them on Amazon and have them delivered Thursday. Maybe schools don’t have money allocated for this, but refurbishing old PCs isn’t really going to solve that problem. A chromebook is pretty cheap compared to the overall cost of education in the US, so a school that claims it has a computer shortage is probably just not prioritizing the acquisition of additional computers, rather than being totally unable to acquire them.

3np 6y ago
And those chromebooks are how repairable and maintainable? And how usable for an average school without Google software? This is larger than the immediate issue you think you're talking about.
Spooky23 6y ago
Not true. Chromebooks with FHD screens in quantity have been constrained since March. Uniformity is important for management of fleets of devices, free refurbs arent free — they require more labor.
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  FHD is not strictly necessary. Refurbing broken old dells won't solve the unformity problem. The point of Chromebook is that they are uniform from a fleet management perspective. And the point of
  - danans 6y ago
    Neverware Cloud-ready is an entire OS derived from Chromium OS and designed to provide an experience very uniform with that of Chrome OS on old PC and Mac hardware: https://www.neverware.com/edu#edu-intro https://www.neverware.com/edu#edu-intro
  - Spooky23 6y ago
    The market disagrees — when I was sending out teams of people to buy laptops at retail during peak COVID crazy, those devices were in stock all over. Chromebook is awesome from a management perspective, but you need to buy Neverware to chrome-ify the boneyard stuff, and you still need to deal with batteries, power supplies, etc.
simple_phrases 6y ago
I have computers that are over 15 years old and still work today because they were designed to be upgraded and to last. There are many Chromebook lines that are similar to phones in that you can't just install Linux or a new version of Windows once Google stops supporting your hardware.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  Most Chromebooks support Linux, though? You just turn on developer mode.
  - quicklyfrozen 6y ago
    Sure it's possible, but then you make a single mistake during booting and your Linux install is wiped out. And the prompt you see during booting is worded to encourage you to disable developer mode and revert to ChromeOS.
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20803968 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20803968
      - quicklyfrozen 6y ago
        Mine was something like 'Your Chromebook is in developer mode, press enter to start ChromeOS' along with some messaging about how dangerous developer mode is. Very easy to accidental press enter -- I know because I did it.
    - YetAnotherNick 6y ago
      That is a problem that could easily be fixed if there is demand. I don't know what you are defending.
      - quicklyfrozen 6y ago
dvduval 6y ago
So that begs the question, how repairable are Chromebooks?
- danans 6y ago
  That would depend a lot on the manufacturer. I would imagine that enterprise-targeted Lenovo Chromebooks, like Lenovo Windows laptops, are probably easier to repair than unibody metal consumer-targeted devices like the Pixelbooks. The board level components (memory, CPU, etc) are not individually replaceable as the boards are designed by Google, not the OEMs. This all assumes that you are not paying for repair labor, however. For very inexpensive Chromebooks, The repair technician's time may cost more than a whole new device. Disclosure: Chrome OS engineer, but my positive opinions about Lenovo devices are my own.
  - tssva 6y ago
    My local school district provides Lenovo chromebooks to all 2nd - 12th graders. They are easily repairable and Lenovo has a self maintainer program which allows the school district's technicians to become Lenovo certified and perform warranty service themselves. This means quicker turn around and reduced price from Lenovo since they don't have to pay for warranty repair labor.
    - danans 6y ago
      Seems like a great arrangement. I wonder if one could even use a program like that to train more "hands-on" (vs. academically oriented) high schoolers as a step towards technician careers. Sort of like how many people who ended up in the corporate IT support/management field started out working as computer lab support techs in college, or before that, kids who worked in the high school auto shop (remember when those existed?) sometimes ended with good careers in auto manufacturing. I always read about employers who have a hard time finding good technicians.
      - tssva 6y ago
        The school district still offers many "hands-on" career training including auto repair, many construction trades, EMT, firefighter, HVAC, multiple health technician fields, culinary arts, welding, tv production, digital animation, and several more. In addition they have a Cisco networking and a computer technician curriculum. At the end of the computer technician program the students should be able to get their CompTIA A+ and Network+ certificates. All of these programs include practical instruction with local businesses.
raxxorrax 6y ago
A chromebook is a toy. You would want to have a device pupils can actually work with. Like writing texts and do homework. A tablet isn't even good for reading, it is good for holiday photos, painting and some superficial communication. It cannot supply much educational value. That is ok for what it is, but it isn't more.

by lacker 6y ago

3np 6y ago

And those chromebooks are how repairable and maintainable? And how usable for an average school without Google software? This is larger than the immediate issue you think you're talking about.

Spooky23 6y ago

Not true. Chromebooks with FHD screens in quantity have been constrained since March. Uniformity is important for management of fleets of devices, free refurbs arent free — they require more labor.

srtjstjsj 6y ago
FHD is not strictly necessary. Refurbing broken old dells won't solve the unformity problem. The point of Chromebook is that they are uniform from a fleet management perspective. And the point of
- danans 6y ago
  Neverware Cloud-ready is an entire OS derived from Chromium OS and designed to provide an experience very uniform with that of Chrome OS on old PC and Mac hardware: https://www.neverware.com/edu#edu-intro https://www.neverware.com/edu#edu-intro
- Spooky23 6y ago
  The market disagrees — when I was sending out teams of people to buy laptops at retail during peak COVID crazy, those devices were in stock all over. Chromebook is awesome from a management perspective, but you need to buy Neverware to chrome-ify the boneyard stuff, and you still need to deal with batteries, power supplies, etc.

simple_phrases 6y ago

I have computers that are over 15 years old and still work today because they were designed to be upgraded and to last. There are many Chromebook lines that are similar to phones in that you can't just install Linux or a new version of Windows once Google stops supporting your hardware.

saagarjha 6y ago
Most Chromebooks support Linux, though? You just turn on developer mode.
- quicklyfrozen 6y ago
  Sure it's possible, but then you make a single mistake during booting and your Linux install is wiped out. And the prompt you see during booting is worded to encourage you to disable developer mode and revert to ChromeOS.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20803968 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20803968
    - quicklyfrozen 6y ago
      Mine was something like 'Your Chromebook is in developer mode, press enter to start ChromeOS' along with some messaging about how dangerous developer mode is. Very easy to accidental press enter -- I know because I did it.
  - YetAnotherNick 6y ago
    That is a problem that could easily be fixed if there is demand. I don't know what you are defending.
    - quicklyfrozen 6y ago

dvduval 6y ago

So that begs the question, how repairable are Chromebooks?

danans 6y ago
That would depend a lot on the manufacturer. I would imagine that enterprise-targeted Lenovo Chromebooks, like Lenovo Windows laptops, are probably easier to repair than unibody metal consumer-targeted devices like the Pixelbooks. The board level components (memory, CPU, etc) are not individually replaceable as the boards are designed by Google, not the OEMs. This all assumes that you are not paying for repair labor, however. For very inexpensive Chromebooks, The repair technician's time may cost more than a whole new device. Disclosure: Chrome OS engineer, but my positive opinions about Lenovo devices are my own.
- tssva 6y ago
  My local school district provides Lenovo chromebooks to all 2nd - 12th graders. They are easily repairable and Lenovo has a self maintainer program which allows the school district's technicians to become Lenovo certified and perform warranty service themselves. This means quicker turn around and reduced price from Lenovo since they don't have to pay for warranty repair labor.
  - danans 6y ago
    Seems like a great arrangement. I wonder if one could even use a program like that to train more "hands-on" (vs. academically oriented) high schoolers as a step towards technician careers. Sort of like how many people who ended up in the corporate IT support/management field started out working as computer lab support techs in college, or before that, kids who worked in the high school auto shop (remember when those existed?) sometimes ended with good careers in auto manufacturing. I always read about employers who have a hard time finding good technicians.
    - tssva 6y ago
      The school district still offers many "hands-on" career training including auto repair, many construction trades, EMT, firefighter, HVAC, multiple health technician fields, culinary arts, welding, tv production, digital animation, and several more. In addition they have a Cisco networking and a computer technician curriculum. At the end of the computer technician program the students should be able to get their CompTIA A+ and Network+ certificates. All of these programs include practical instruction with local businesses.

raxxorrax 6y ago

A chromebook is a toy. You would want to have a device pupils can actually work with. Like writing texts and do homework. A tablet isn't even good for reading, it is good for holiday photos, painting and some superficial communication. It cannot supply much educational value. That is ok for what it is, but it isn't more.