Google extended the support of Chrome OS updates on Chromebooks to ten years last year. This end-of-life cycle improvement will save consumers billions of dollars. There are many theorized implications of extending OS support that go beyond just saving money. Extending support will provide more value in the long run to Chromebooks, produce less e-waste, and increase cybersecurity. For as long as they have been around, Chromebooks have been treated as the low power, low functionality, easily replaced, and low-cost options for users who wanted a personal device. I personally used one in the early days of their existence for minimal tasks in college. For 110$ a fully functional personal device was hard to beat. If I could get through 90% of the work I needed to complete while saving myself thousands of dollars, why would I push for a high-end PC or a MacBook? The main problem that came with Chromebooks were their durability, functionality, and how quickly their end-of-life support seemed to come. When this was increased to ten years last year, ChromeOS essentially cemented itself in the same category as Windows and MacOS. One could argue that with all the malware that is specifically designed for PCs and with the built-in security features of ChromeOS, that Chromebooks should realistically last longer than most Windows devices at this point. Early ChromeOS wasn’t the most secure operating system in the world but it has come an incredibly long way and is trusted in almost every school district in the US. As the kids who are using these daily grow up, we may see more of a lean into ChromeOS for household devices.
We have already seen the development of more powerful Chromebooks in the past few years. Chromebooks are starting to come available with high-end processors and RAM. It's getting to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if they started making GPU capable Chromebooks. This, in combination with extending end-of-life support, is providing more value to Chromebooks. The more value that these Chromebooks have, the less they will become easily disposable and in turn produce less waste. The cost of Chromebooks will continue to rise as they become more efficient, but they will also be more secure for a longer period. This means that the only thing holding the Chromebook market back will be physical durability of the hardware. From my experience, Chromebooks seem to physically last longer than PCs but not as long as MacBooks. Part of this I think can be attributed to the low functionality of the Chromebooks and the resource management. If a device only needs to be used for typing a Google Doc, then it is going to last a lot longer than a device that is doing graphical design eight hours a day. The longer that these Chromebooks can last the longer that the school systems will be able to use them. Longevity of Chromebooks lifespans will help save low funded school districts especially a lot of money. The availability of better supported Chromebooks will also be good for the education of students who will no longer be using outdated devices that have little to no security.
The extension of ChromeOS support is the greatest thing that I think has happened to Chromebooks since their inception. The benefits of adding life to these Chromebooks will be seen in the next decade provided through less waste, increased value in Chrome devices, improved cybersecurity, and a reduction in the overall costs of school systems. I believe that Apple and Microsoft should follow the example set by Google to increase their OS support to at least 10 years to help improve overall cybersecurity and also to help limit our throwaway tech society.
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