I bought a little cheapie Chromebook a couple of years ago, when we were all sent home from work.
It’s now reaching the expiry date - no new updates from June onwards.
What difference will it make to the way my Chromebook works? Will I notice any major changes right away? or will it be the occasional irritant over time?
You’ll have two issues:
My daughter gave me her Acer C710, which was well past its expiration date and was constantly telling me I had to get a new one. So I decided to scrap Chrome and convert it to Linux, specifically Ubuntu. Now it works better than ever and gets regular updates.
Be aware, though, that replacing the OS (as opposed to installing Linux over Chrome) is an arcane process and could brick your machine. The biggest roadblock is that Google really doesn’t want you leaving the fold, to the extent that the Chrome BIOS typically won’t allow booting from an optical or USB drive; so the first step is to flash the BIOS to a version which will allow doing so. Among other things, this involves putting the Chromebook into developer mode, and probably tweaking something inside (for the C710, it meant bridging a jumper with a piece of aluminum foil). It’s also necessary to hunt down the BIOS file for the specific CPU and machine. But once past that step, it’s just a matter of test driving various distros until you find the one you like, then installing it.
Thank you, but have you never come across any of my posts where I say I’m a techno-peasant?
Hint: my one and only computer science class in uni required punch cards, lovingly crafted personally on great honking punch card machines.
If your options are to junk it or to try and convert it to something that might continue to work properly - junking it only if you fail - then it would still be worth trying to follow any tutorial to turn it into a Linux machine, even if you’re likely to fail.
But if you would buy a new machine to replace this one then, I would also note, you can probably find someone who is techy enough to convert it for cheaper than most laptops. (Though, maybe not less than the cost of a new Chromebook…) It’s probably worth a minute of research, at least.
A friend gave my kid an unused Chromebook last week. I believe it’s an Acer R11. The first thing I saw when starting it up was that security updates expire in June, 2022.
I’m not going to worry about it for our planned usage. My kid will use it to watch shows, play games, and maybe do some very light web browsing. The worst that happens if it’s hacked is that maybe somebody steals my Netflix login credentials.
Now, if it was going to be used for more security sensitive stuff, then I would be much more concerned. It will probably work normally for a long time, and you won’t notice any changes.
At some point some vulnerability in Chrome (the browser) will be found, and if it’s really bad, then some ad on a webpage could install nasty things. You likely won’t have any warning that is a problem. Just one day (worst case scenario) every password you type is sent off to somebody else.
If you ever do things on it like login to your email or check your bank account, then plan on retiring it in the next few months.
You can try installing Linux on it if you want, but at this point it’s probably old and slow enough that it’s worth spending a few hundred on a new one, if you can afford it. The new one should be faster and better.
So, TL;DR: It will keep working just as well on July 1 as it works today. But, at that point it is a ticking clock until some security vulnerability makes it too dangerous to use. That clock could run out in days, or never, but you have no way of knowing. Plan to replace it this summer, if you can afford to.
That’s all assuming you decide to keep it on ChromeOS, if you switch to Linux, then it should be fine as long as whatever you install is supported.
Right, that puts it in context for me and answers my OP. I use it for my banking and income taxes. Time to replace. Thanks very much.
I’m June 2022 as well. I do my finance stuff and surf and things work fine. The computer is quick enough for my wants. I’ll drag things out for another year then get after it. My problem is most sellers don’t list the expiration date. This site,
Auto Update policy - Chrome Enterprise and Education Help?
lists by manufacturer but the names don’t always match up with the seller [Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart…]
Lenovo was particularly bad. Going to the comments, questions, and reviews helped some but still a mess.
I have one that’s probably 6 months to a year past its expiration date and no issues so far. I don’t use it for banking, though. Shouldn’t HTTPS still protect your banking stuff?
HTTPS uses TLS (was SSL) encryption between your browser and the end server. It does nothing to protect the data on either end of the connection.
If you give your credit card number to someone over an encrypted phone link and there is someone in the room on either end, they can still hear you.
True.
To the OP, for what it’s worth, Chromebooks have only been hacked once, at that was by a security researcher. I don’t know if it was a remote hack or if the researcher had the machine.
That was with regular updates, of course, but you’re probably safe for a while.