Google has introduced the Auto Replace Expiration (AUE) date can be prolonged from 5 years to 10 for all Chromebooks, guaranteeing a decade of month-to-month safety updates.
Chromebooks are cheap laptops working ChromeOS, which are inclined to have weaker processes and smaller RAM and ROM, sometimes geared toward college students and distant employees who depend on cloud providers moderately than working heavy masses regionally on the system.
This makes Chromebooks a particular goal, cost-effective resolution for companies and colleges, so its help interval performs an important position in evaluating their buy, particularly by organizations shopping for them in bulk.
Google says that beginning in 2024, all Chromebooks launched after 2021 will mechanically qualify for ten years of safety updates, delivered mechanically to the system each 4 weeks.
This selection to increase software program help to 10 years can even be given to homeowners of Chromebooks launched earlier than 2021, though some options and providers is probably not supported in these instances.
Beforehand, the AUE for Chromebooks was assured 5 years from the platform’s launch however may generally attain as much as eight years.
Customers who purchased a mannequin with out listening to that element may discover themselves out of help in a few years as a consequence of selecting an older mannequin that made extra monetary sense on the time.
Take a look at this Google webpage for an up-to-date record of AUE dates for all Chromebooks accessible in markets worldwide.
Chromebook reached AUE?
Low-powered Chromebooks can proceed to cowl fundamental wants after the AUE has been reached, and other than changing them with a brand new mannequin, customers have a number of choices to increase the utility life on their outdated units.
The best strategy to lengthen a Chromebook’s life for so long as its {hardware} works is to modify from ChromeOS to a Linux distribution with a light-weight desktop atmosphere akin to Xfce, LXDE, or Openbox.
One other potential situation is repurposing the expired Chromebook as a further exterior monitor on your different computer systems, though not all fashions help this operate.
After all, there’s all the time the choice of continuous to make use of a Chromebook that doesn’t obtain updates anymore, and it ought to function with out compatibility points for a 12 months or so, however this isn’t really useful as a result of related safety dangers.