5 ms·

> Reduce e-waste and extend the life of your existing devices by transforming them with a modern OS. Flies in the face of many functional Chromebooks/Chromebox

> Reduce e-waste and extend the life of your existing devices by transforming them with a modern OS. Flies in the face of many functional Chromebooks/Chromeboxens losing support (https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366 https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366). Extend the support lifetimes of your first-party hardware and I'll believe you, Google. Unfortunately, you have definitely burnt many bridges over this.

ignoramous 5y ago
> Today, the OS is in early access and you may experience some instability. Tomorrow the OS is EOL and you may experience déjà vu: https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/ Jk, they won't surely?
- Shadonototra 5y ago
  if you don't try, you don't exist they should be proud to have such a page do you have yours? oh sorry, you don't even try
  - incrudible 5y ago
    If you keep killing products quickly after launch, people will hesitate to invest in your products. This is also a problem with startups. I need a problem solved, not be part your incredible journey.
  - ignoramous 5y ago
    Undoubtedly there remain issues with Eric Schmidt style 'let a thousand flowers bloom' approach to product development, though, there is some upside to it, too (gmail, for ex). That said, I doubt the list on killedbygoogle.com parroted around as a badge of honour of having tried even if failed, is one of them... cognitive dissonance be damned.
- squarefoot 5y ago
  Translation: lots of cheap 2nd hand Chromebooks/boxes to unlock and flash with an open OS. https://mrchromebox.tech/ https://mrchromebox.tech/
- qwertox 5y ago
  Lately with the G Suite announcement it has felt more like a massacre. Who cares about Google Currents shutting down, when we have already learned not to touch new Google products like Duo, Hangouts, Meet or whatever they are named.
  - edgyquant 5y ago
    What G Suite announcement? That they changed the name?
    - chrisdhal 5y ago
      The one where the free GSuite accounts, that they discontinued 10 years ago, were now going to be converted and you'd have to pay for them. They didn't "massacre" anything, it was already done a decade ago. https://support.google.com/a/answer/60217?product_name=UnuFlow&visit_id=637806130438967322-1998291477&rd=1&src=supportwidget0#faq https://support.google.com/a/answer/60217?product_name=UnuFl...
- geofft 5y ago
  Google is a business - they are neither a kindly old wizard doing things for the good of the people, nor are they a game show wheel, randomly picking a product to kill today. You can pretty accurately model what they will and won't do with this one unusual insight that they're a business. For instance: are they going to kill Chrome? No, Chrome has given them market dominance as well as a seat at the table to define web standards, improving and shaping the web platform both to be a more appealing product to developers and users, so that they can make more money when they stick ads on it, and to more easily support sticking ads on it. Or, briefly, Chrome - though it's not a paid product per se - makes them huge amounts of money. What about (from that website) Google Currents? It's the rebranded, corporate-only version of Google+. Its biggest user was almost certainly Google itself, and it was a venue for employee activism and therefore was a threat to corporate profit. Briefly, though it was a paid product, they had few paying users and it cost them money. A sibling comment mentions the end of legacy free G Suite (formerly GAFYD) accounts for very small users. This was, by definition, a thing that didn't make them money and a thing that was hardly an on-ramp for subscriptions that did make them money. Again, you could predict this. So what abut Chrome OS Flex? It remains to be seen - it's not as clearly worthwhile as Chrome or even Chrome OS itself. But Google does absolutely make money on Chrome OS Enterprise, which this product is clearly linked with. It's nowhere in the same boat as things they provided out of the kindness of their corporate-personhood heart like legacy free G Suite or Google Reader. It might end up being a failed experiment, certainly. But "It's a Google product" is a weak signal about whether it's going to get killed, and there are many stronger signals. Let me know when they kill Ads and Cloud.
vero2 5y ago
most chromebooks got up to 6 years support. BTW, one can still use these old ones, they will get LaCros (where only browser gets updated). > Flies in the face of many functional Chromebooks/Chromeboxens losing support On these old hardware you can install Linux or even cloudready. Are you expecting support forever?
- eeeficus 5y ago
  No, of course not! Let’s throw away perfectly good computers. Yes I know that you can use Linux but I expect that if I’m buying a chromebook, I like the OS as well?
  - HelixEndeavor 5y ago
    The whole premise of the Chromebook and reason for its market share is the simplicity to average users. Most of what we do is web browser-focused. So cut out the fat and have a computer that's all about the web browser. The proposition of installing Linux on these machines once they're EOL flies in the face of the reasons most users buy them, and won't at all address the core issue.
- jethro_tell 5y ago
  I'd like support until I decide to be done with it. With a Linux base, it seems like releasing the drivers to mainline and supplying browser updates ought to take care of that. I don't really understand what else would need to go into that so maybe I'm missing something but especially for x86 boxes it should be pretty simple.
- _Algernon_ 5y ago
  I used my last laptop for 10 years. If you actually want to "Reduce e-waste and extend the life of your existing devices", install a Linux distro with a light DE (e.g i3 or xfce).
  - vero2 5y ago
    The problem is regular user does NOT want i3. Google cannot build a i3 and provide it as an update to old chromebook. BTW even latest Lubuntu needs 4GB RAM... Sure you can use minimal window manager like awesome, but not the average joe!
notacoward 5y ago
Couldn't agree more. My 2015 Chromebook Pixel was EOLed not too long ago. Microsoft will still support Windows on older machines than that. If Google wants to go all white-knight about preventing e-waste then supporting their own older machines is the first thing to do. Otherwise it looks like just greenwashing as a tactic to convert Windows/MacOS hardware to their own OS.
- notyourday 5y ago
  It worked on CN60 - here are the instructions https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30354398 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30354398
notyourday 5y ago
It worked on CN60.
- zinekeller 5y ago
  And, what's your point? Why this isn't an automatic update - I thought that the premise of ChromeOS is escape from Windows' update nightmare.
  - notyourday 5y ago
    Because it has not been supported by Google for 2.5 years.
    - zinekeller 5y ago
      And, again, what's your point? Why this isn't an automatic update - why does Google not put the effort of upgrading their old systems while Microsoft just do it? Apart from the ill-fated Surface RT, Microsoft's old devices still receive periodic updates with minimal intervention. Why Google can't do the same thing? Edit: actually, Microsoft is even kind enough to support clusterf***s that are not even their fault - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/07/clover-trail-systems-wont-get-windows-10-creators-update-ever/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/07/clover-trail-systems.... As another comment pointed out, just give security updates if it's too onerous to upgrade to the next OS - which in CN60 is demonstrated to be a pure business decision.
      - notyourday 5y ago
        Because it went out of support. 5 years is their term for Chromebooks/Chromeboxes. I paid $220 for it. Was it infuriating that they did not support it longer? Yes. But $220/5 = $44/year. I gave info to people who were curious if this worked. It did. Want to write something ragey about it? Publish it on your blog.

ignoramous 5y ago

> Today, the OS is in early access and you may experience some instability. Tomorrow the OS is EOL and you may experience déjà vu: https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/ Jk, they won't surely?

Shadonototra 5y ago
if you don't try, you don't exist they should be proud to have such a page do you have yours? oh sorry, you don't even try
- incrudible 5y ago
  If you keep killing products quickly after launch, people will hesitate to invest in your products. This is also a problem with startups. I need a problem solved, not be part your incredible journey.
- ignoramous 5y ago
  Undoubtedly there remain issues with Eric Schmidt style 'let a thousand flowers bloom' approach to product development, though, there is some upside to it, too (gmail, for ex). That said, I doubt the list on killedbygoogle.com parroted around as a badge of honour of having tried even if failed, is one of them... cognitive dissonance be damned.
squarefoot 5y ago
Translation: lots of cheap 2nd hand Chromebooks/boxes to unlock and flash with an open OS. https://mrchromebox.tech/ https://mrchromebox.tech/
qwertox 5y ago
Lately with the G Suite announcement it has felt more like a massacre. Who cares about Google Currents shutting down, when we have already learned not to touch new Google products like Duo, Hangouts, Meet or whatever they are named.
- edgyquant 5y ago
  What G Suite announcement? That they changed the name?
  - chrisdhal 5y ago
    The one where the free GSuite accounts, that they discontinued 10 years ago, were now going to be converted and you'd have to pay for them. They didn't "massacre" anything, it was already done a decade ago. https://support.google.com/a/answer/60217?product_name=UnuFlow&visit_id=637806130438967322-1998291477&rd=1&src=supportwidget0#faq https://support.google.com/a/answer/60217?product_name=UnuFl...
geofft 5y ago
Google is a business - they are neither a kindly old wizard doing things for the good of the people, nor are they a game show wheel, randomly picking a product to kill today. You can pretty accurately model what they will and won't do with this one unusual insight that they're a business. For instance: are they going to kill Chrome? No, Chrome has given them market dominance as well as a seat at the table to define web standards, improving and shaping the web platform both to be a more appealing product to developers and users, so that they can make more money when they stick ads on it, and to more easily support sticking ads on it. Or, briefly, Chrome - though it's not a paid product per se - makes them huge amounts of money. What about (from that website) Google Currents? It's the rebranded, corporate-only version of Google+. Its biggest user was almost certainly Google itself, and it was a venue for employee activism and therefore was a threat to corporate profit. Briefly, though it was a paid product, they had few paying users and it cost them money. A sibling comment mentions the end of legacy free G Suite (formerly GAFYD) accounts for very small users. This was, by definition, a thing that didn't make them money and a thing that was hardly an on-ramp for subscriptions that did make them money. Again, you could predict this. So what abut Chrome OS Flex? It remains to be seen - it's not as clearly worthwhile as Chrome or even Chrome OS itself. But Google does absolutely make money on Chrome OS Enterprise, which this product is clearly linked with. It's nowhere in the same boat as things they provided out of the kindness of their corporate-personhood heart like legacy free G Suite or Google Reader. It might end up being a failed experiment, certainly. But "It's a Google product" is a weak signal about whether it's going to get killed, and there are many stronger signals. Let me know when they kill Ads and Cloud.

vero2 5y ago

most chromebooks got up to 6 years support. BTW, one can still use these old ones, they will get LaCros (where only browser gets updated). > Flies in the face of many functional Chromebooks/Chromeboxens losing support On these old hardware you can install Linux or even cloudready. Are you expecting support forever?

eeeficus 5y ago
No, of course not! Let’s throw away perfectly good computers. Yes I know that you can use Linux but I expect that if I’m buying a chromebook, I like the OS as well?
- HelixEndeavor 5y ago
  The whole premise of the Chromebook and reason for its market share is the simplicity to average users. Most of what we do is web browser-focused. So cut out the fat and have a computer that's all about the web browser. The proposition of installing Linux on these machines once they're EOL flies in the face of the reasons most users buy them, and won't at all address the core issue.
jethro_tell 5y ago
I'd like support until I decide to be done with it. With a Linux base, it seems like releasing the drivers to mainline and supplying browser updates ought to take care of that. I don't really understand what else would need to go into that so maybe I'm missing something but especially for x86 boxes it should be pretty simple.
_Algernon_ 5y ago
I used my last laptop for 10 years. If you actually want to "Reduce e-waste and extend the life of your existing devices", install a Linux distro with a light DE (e.g i3 or xfce).
- vero2 5y ago
  The problem is regular user does NOT want i3. Google cannot build a i3 and provide it as an update to old chromebook. BTW even latest Lubuntu needs 4GB RAM... Sure you can use minimal window manager like awesome, but not the average joe!

notacoward 5y ago

Couldn't agree more. My 2015 Chromebook Pixel was EOLed not too long ago. Microsoft will still support Windows on older machines than that. If Google wants to go all white-knight about preventing e-waste then supporting their own older machines is the first thing to do. Otherwise it looks like just greenwashing as a tactic to convert Windows/MacOS hardware to their own OS.

notyourday 5y ago
It worked on CN60 - here are the instructions https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30354398 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30354398

notyourday 5y ago

It worked on CN60.

zinekeller 5y ago
And, what's your point? Why this isn't an automatic update - I thought that the premise of ChromeOS is escape from Windows' update nightmare.
- notyourday 5y ago
  Because it has not been supported by Google for 2.5 years.
  - zinekeller 5y ago
    And, again, what's your point? Why this isn't an automatic update - why does Google not put the effort of upgrading their old systems while Microsoft just do it? Apart from the ill-fated Surface RT, Microsoft's old devices still receive periodic updates with minimal intervention. Why Google can't do the same thing? Edit: actually, Microsoft is even kind enough to support clusterf***s that are not even their fault - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/07/clover-trail-systems-wont-get-windows-10-creators-update-ever/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/07/clover-trail-systems.... As another comment pointed out, just give security updates if it's too onerous to upgrade to the next OS - which in CN60 is demonstrated to be a pure business decision.
    - notyourday 5y ago
      Because it went out of support. 5 years is their term for Chromebooks/Chromeboxes. I paid $220 for it. Was it infuriating that they did not support it longer? Yes. But $220/5 = $44/year. I gave info to people who were curious if this worked. It did. Want to write something ragey about it? Publish it on your blog.