EOL Chromebook

Forums › Chromium OS and Google Chrome OS › EOL Chromebook

ianboag

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#233558 21-Apr-2018 16:30

I was using an old Acer Chromebook. I powered it up and it told me it was at the End Of Life and would not get any more updates. I acknowledged this and told it not to remind me again.

It still seems to work fine for the things I do with it. Does anyone know what terrible fate awaits me if I just keep using it ..... ?

My understanding was that CB's are so simple and (relatively) dumb that security is not really an issue. Or is that just because Google has done such a great job up to now? I have never heard of a CB having virus or worm trouble, but that might be because I haven't looked ......

gzt

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#2000356 21-Apr-2018 17:13

They did a great job. The problem is the internet will always think up random ways to destroy and take over things that are out of date.

Google recently renamed that policy auto update and set it at six and a half years for the current generation.

gzt

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#2000357 21-Apr-2018 17:17

By the way what is the chrome browser version you have?

ianboag

103 posts

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#2000362 21-Apr-2018 17:23

Dunno. Does it matter?

I did powerwash the machine a week ago.

ianboag

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#2001219 23-Apr-2018 17:08

FWIW I read up a bit on Chromebook security. The way it is put together apparently means that pretty much all PC malware would have nothing to attach to. Google offer something like $200k to anyone who can demonstrably hack one. I would imagine if anyone did actually manage it, we would all hear about it. Chromebooks are easily the most secure consumer grade PC on the planet.

It appear the EOL CB's just keep going except for the odd one that goes strange and periodically reboots the browser. So I don't think I will be trashing mine or advising anyone else with an EOL one to do so.

michaelmurfy

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#2001395 24-Apr-2018 09:30

@ianboag There is also nothing stopping you from popping it into developer mode and putting a flavor of Linux on it. Ubuntu and Linux Mint works quite well with older Chromebooks.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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