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Google breaks promise to provide 10 years of updates to Chromebooks (www.osnews.com)
submitted 21 hours ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 13 points 10 hours ago

or qualifying devices purchased today whose 10-year support lifecycle extends beyond 2034, Google is committed to supporting your transition to Googlebook OS, with many devices offering direct migration paths.

What a pleasant way for them to say "get tossed."

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    [–] 198 points 21 hours ago (4 children)

    How google of them.

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    • [–] 25 points 16 hours ago

    You mean the same promise they just made about their brand new "Googlebooks"?

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    [–] 48 points 18 hours ago (6 children)

    Sounds like a class action. Some corporate buyer or school will probably sue. I predict the judgement will end up being a coupon for $100 off one of the new googlebooks.

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  • [–] 21 points 18 hours ago (4 children)

    The lawyers will probably agree to a settlement and people will only get a $20 coupon.

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  • [–] 12 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

    $20 to a class member in one these suits would be an incredible “win.” I’ve never seen the individual award on a class action go above $2.

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    • [–] 73 points 20 hours ago (11 children)

    How is that a promise? It's a contract that they entered with everyone buying a Chromebook. Seems to me that breaking that would be a beach of contract, and I'd say it's probably false advertising if they continue to sell Chromebooks with "10 years of updates"

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  • [–] 39 points 19 hours ago (9 children)

    you are correct, if they sold them with a paper saying there will be 10 years of updates they are required to provide 10 years of updates. If not then they could be taken to court for either fraud or false advertising. Which they would likely not show up to cause that's usually their go to.

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  • [–] 16 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

    Sounds like a massive class action suit waiting to happen.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 hours ago

    Which will result in a settlement equivalent to $5 to each class member. Google still is net positive, and everything continues on as normal.

    Someone already ran the numbers and it's less expensive for them to do this than to even keep a skeleton crew on support for the end of the term.

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  • [+] -6 points 18 hours ago (4 children)

    Companies update their agreements all the time, and we agree to them all the time, without ever reading them. When it comes to hardware, there are basically no consumer protections and companies can even legally hold your hardware hostage.

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  • [–] 13 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

    Your jurisdiction may vary

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  • [–] 7 points 17 hours ago (1 child)

    You might be more protected in theory than you are in practice.

    Whom I had in mind was actually a Noreweigan company, FutureHome, who ransomwared their own cameras.

    https://www.consumerrights.wiki/w/Futurehome_Smarthub_mandatory_subscription_fee

    This issue drew attention to consumer protection laws. Norway is not a member of the European Union, but it is part of the European Economic Area (EEA), which means EU consumer-protection directives (such as those barring unfair commercial practices) are incorporated into Norwegian law. Observers noted that retroactively charging a subscription for a product that was sold under a no-fee premise might violate these rules, though as of mid-2025 it remained unclear if any official action would be taken. Some users discussed the possibility of legal recourse or a class-action lawsuit in response to Futurehome's move.

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  • [–] 4 points 15 hours ago

    Good reference! For the non EUropeans it's worth mentioning that enforcement initially falls to the country itself, though subsequent appeals may be made to European courts. This depends on a ton of things.

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  • [–] 5 points 17 hours ago

    Yeah, I do agree your jurisdiction may vary.

    In the US at least, you can't change a terms of purchase via a terms of service.

    So if it was stated at point of purchase that your system will be getting 10 years of updates, and then they decided six years in, you know what? We're actually only going to do six years of updates, and then posted a terms of service that changed how long they were able to update it. That wouldn't be legally binding.

    In this case, though it doesn't sound like they're changing existing buyer's agreements, it sounds like they are changing the purchase agreement for new consumers who haven't purchased the product. which is far more legally enforceable as no agreement has been done in that case.

    Still a shitty thing for them to do though, considering that they had promised that Chromebooks would have 10 years of updates but I don't think they're in violation of anything since it sounds like it's only going to new consumers.

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    • [–] 69 points 21 hours ago

    Too early to add to killedbygoogle.com?

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    [–] 51 points 20 hours ago (8 children)

    nervous laugh

    My Pixel will still be covered for 7 years though right? I need those upstream updates for GrapheneOS.

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  • [–] 35 points 20 hours ago

    That'd be a very Google move.

    "Android devices will continue to receive regular updates and security patches through mid-2027, after which some devices may be eligible for ChromePhoneOS (no you cannot install apk files in ChromePhoneOS stop asking)"

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  • [–] 12 points 20 hours ago* (6 children)

    Hello, fellow Pixel 7 GrapheneOS user!

    Graphene used to have a neat little chart, but interpreting this page

    https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices [and scroll up one paragraph]

    Might actually only be supported til Oct. 6, 2027--next year.

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  • [–] 9 points 18 hours ago (5 children)

    I get their reasoning but it fucks over a lot of people without the finances to always buy a brand new google devices and who absolutely need that kind of security.

    Really grinds my gears because in the end it means only the moderately wealthy really get the benefit.

    I have a pixel 6a I got refurbished and I dont have options but to make it last as long as I can and I've already had to change the battery manually once myself.

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  • [–] 4 points 18 hours ago (4 children)

    I think the problem is they need pretty fancy hardware to do what they do; that's why they're only offering to support the Motorola flagship phone (soon?), and not the cheaper models. This is what I've heard anyway, and it's certainly plausible since expanding their base would be in their interest.

    Depending on exactly what your security requirements are, you might be just as well off with some other phone/OS combo, acknowledging that anything else is a stepdown--I think GOS is the most secure phone out there.

    I also notice my inner senior Fox News viewer complaining about people having high end phones who legitimately should not; but, at any rate, maybe you could buy a Pixel 11 off one of those people next year.

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  • [–] 1 point 17 hours ago (3 children)

    Honestly, I'm really less worried about myself and more worried about people in more dangerous situations where the cost of such a thing dwarfs even the cost to me. There's tons of people out there who are being actively monitored by their governments and they simply can't afford it. Like all the dirt poor immigrants being deported to countries they have never been to.

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  • [–] 3 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

    I think in instances like that, you're better off avoiding technology altogether.

    I was thinking of joining a pro-immigrant group but decided against it since it seemed largely performative/social, but I remember one of them inviting me to SMS them my signal user name. Like, what? But even if the technical side of security is top notch, infiltration would be trivial...

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  • [–] 3 points 17 hours ago* (1 child)

    But even if the technical side of security is top notch, infiltration would be trivial…

    Yeah really bad opsec all around in a LOT of these groups, but I'm not really sure how you organize without a means of communications. I think collective ownership of the means of communication is just as important to laborers as collective ownership of the means of production.

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  • [–] 4 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

    Well, since nothing any of these groups are doing is even illegal, operational security is nice, but really not necessary. But even if you have the technical aspects conquered, there's no effective way to vet people for being True Believers that wouldn't simultaneously doom your organization to low membership and paranoid infighting.

    And if anyone is doing things that are illegal, organizational silos were a thing even before the internet was a glimmer in Al Gore's eye, see: terror cells. The Battle of Algiers is a great movie that goes into how it works.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Algiers

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    • [–] 17 points 20 hours ago

    shockedpikachu.jpg

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    [–] 3 points 14 hours ago

    sounds like google is doing more evil yet again all for ai datacenters more ai slop more hallucinations

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    [–] 3 points 15 hours ago

    They couldn't even live up to their initial promise of "Don't be evil," and yet people thought they might not do it this time?

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    [–] 12 points 20 hours ago

    unrelated, but seeing the 2030s pop up in "near future" news, is still feeling quite weird

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    [–] 9 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

    I bought an old HP Chromebook 11 G6. Expecting some sort of Android apps running on it. Nope. Nothing. Just really shit Chrome OS, with the newest update. It refused to work with my SD card, once I managed to get it working and simply pasted some files on my PC, the card was unreadable again. So I unlocked the device and installed Linux. Now I have an OK thing for remote management of my server, browsing, VS Code and DOS games emulation. I didn't expect much from ChromeOS, but it took me by surprise how shit it was.

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    • [–] 2 points 16 hours ago*

    For qualifying devices purchased today whose 10-year support lifecycle extends beyond 2034, Google is committed to supporting your transition to Googlebook OS, with many devices offering direct migration paths.

    It sounds like there will be an upgrade path? Just that you will have to make an upgrade that might bring significant changes to the OS 8 years from now..

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