Elementary OS on a 2011 Macbook Pro

Posted by jaslar
Jan 29, 2020 at 06:36 PM

I think I DID find it a little dishonest. I bought in 2017 a machine from 2015. I was not aware, until two years after buying the Chromebook, that it had a software end of life. I did a fair amount of reading on Chromebooks before I bought one, too. Nor was it mentioned by the salespeople (who may not have known, either). I use my Chromebook quite a lot, and it seems to have plenty of life left in it. In some ways, this brings me back to my original post about the Mac: this is a fine machine, capable of more work, and it’s irritating to have it deliberately obsoleted by software.

But you’re right that the price point is low enough to justify a shorter life span. I’m just so CHEAP I hate to recycle what might last a little longer. But yes, there are options to convert it to Linux. One example: https://itsfoss.com/install-linux-chromebook/

Dr Andus wrote:
MadaboutDana wrote:
>>I’ve no idea about Chromebooks, alas. But the sunsetting seems to
>>me singularly dishonest, given Chrome’s minimal footprint.
> >I don’t find this dishonest. You get good value for money.
> >AFAIK, separate versions of Chrome OS are developed for each hardware
>model (which is partly what makes Chromebooks more secure), so with the
>proliferation of new models it would be increasingly expensive to
>develop updates for decreasing numbers of aging hardware.
> >Considering that most Chromebooks are cheap and cheerful, the hardware
>rarely lasts more than 3 years with daily use. My Chromebooks lasted
>about 2.5 years on average.
> >However, now that more premium and better built machines are appearing
>more frequently, Google have actually extended end of life to 8 years
>for new models from 2020 onwards.
> >But the option is still there to convert an old Chromebook to a Linux
>machine or install CloudReady.