This article seems to misunderstand Google’s claims in multiple ways. This is clearly an anti-consumer practice but it’s not a broken promise.
Any claims about how long a system will be supported have almost always been relative to when it first released. Apple, Samsung, and countless other consumer hardware vendors do this too. Those claims don’t consider when the last unit of the same device model was manufactured or when the last customer buys one from “new” inventory, even though those should be very important factors for its lifespan.
Chromebooks have always been even worse than most in that respect: if multiple Chromebook models from different vendors have similar board hardware and the same CPU family (more accurately, using the same “platform” directory in the code), they’re all considered one system in terms of lifecycle. Even someone who bought a brand new Chromebook model on release day might have already missed more than a year of its lifecycle before then, since new laptops sometimes use the previous year’s CPU.
In addition, if you say a certain device will be supported with OS updates for 10 years, that doesn’t imply that it’ll still have the same OS with the same branding the whole time. They never guaranteed every update will remain compatible with every piece of software you use on it, either. A Chromebook from 2016 that could run uBlock Origin and NaCl apps then won’t be able to run them after installing all current OS updates in 2026.
How google of them.
A classic Google move.
Right up there with “Don’t be evil.”
“Hey, I have an application I don’t want to support anymore. How can I get rid of it?”
let me Google that for you
“Oh great, it’s gone now. Thanks!”
Google broke the deal by closing Android, Google is evil now, not to be trusted.
How is that a promise? It’s a contract that they entered with everyone buying a Chromebook. Seems to me that breaking that would be a beach of contract, and I’d say it’s probably false advertising if they continue to sell Chromebooks with “10 years of updates”
you are correct, if they sold them with a paper saying there will be 10 years of updates they are required to provide 10 years of updates. If not then they could be taken to court for either fraud or false advertising. Which they would likely not show up to cause that’s usually their go to.
Companies update their agreements all the time, and we agree to them all the time, without ever reading them. When it comes to hardware, there are basically no consumer protections and companies can even legally hold your hardware hostage.
Your jurisdiction may vary
You might be more protected in theory than you are in practice.
Whom I had in mind was actually a Noreweigan company, FutureHome, who ransomwared their own cameras.
https://www.consumerrights.wiki/w/Futurehome_Smarthub_mandatory_subscription_fee
This issue drew attention to consumer protection laws. Norway is not a member of the European Union, but it is part of the European Economic Area (EEA), which means EU consumer-protection directives (such as those barring unfair commercial practices) are incorporated into Norwegian law. Observers noted that retroactively charging a subscription for a product that was sold under a no-fee premise might violate these rules, though as of mid-2025 it remained unclear if any official action would be taken. Some users discussed the possibility of legal recourse or a class-action lawsuit in response to Futurehome’s move.
Good reference! For the non EUropeans it’s worth mentioning that enforcement initially falls to the country itself, though subsequent appeals may be made to European courts. This depends on a ton of things.
Yeah, I do agree your jurisdiction may vary.
In the US at least, you can’t change a terms of purchase via a terms of service.
So if it was stated at point of purchase that your system will be getting 10 years of updates, and then they decided six years in, you know what? We’re actually only going to do six years of updates, and then posted a terms of service that changed how long they were able to update it. That wouldn’t be legally binding.
In this case, though it doesn’t sound like they’re changing existing buyer’s agreements, it sounds like they are changing the purchase agreement for new consumers who haven’t purchased the product. which is far more legally enforceable as no agreement has been done in that case.
Still a shitty thing for them to do though, considering that they had promised that Chromebooks would have 10 years of updates but I don’t think they’re in violation of anything since it sounds like it’s only going to new consumers.
What contract? It’s a blog post. False advertisement for sure though.
Too early to add to killedbygoogle.com?
Sounds like a class action. Some corporate buyer or school will probably sue. I predict the judgement will end up being a coupon for $100 off one of the new googlebooks.
The lawyers will probably agree to a settlement and people will only get a $20 coupon.
$20 to a class member in one these suits would be an incredible “win.” I’ve never seen the individual award on a class action go above $2.
The Canadian Bread Settlement reached a whole $49.11!
I got like $25 from that massive facebook class action lawsuit in like '23? Still absurd though considering the whole scale of, like, everything
And only if you live in the country where the lawsuit happened
You have no clue how the laws work do you?
or qualifying devices purchased today whose 10-year support lifecycle extends beyond 2034, Google is committed to supporting your transition to Googlebook OS, with many devices offering direct migration paths.
What a pleasant way for them to say “get tossed.”
nervous laugh
My Pixel will still be covered for 7 years though right? I need those upstream updates for GrapheneOS.
That’d be a very Google move.
“Android devices will continue to receive regular updates and security patches through mid-2027, after which some devices may be eligible for ChromePhoneOS (no you cannot install apk files in ChromePhoneOS stop asking)”
Hello, fellow Pixel 7 GrapheneOS user!
Graphene used to have a neat little chart, but interpreting this page
https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices [and scroll up one paragraph]
Might actually only be supported til Oct. 6, 2027–next year.
You mean the same promise they just made about their brand new “Googlebooks”?
shockedpikachu.jpg
unrelated, but seeing the 2030s pop up in “near future” news, is still feeling quite weird
I bought an old HP Chromebook 11 G6. Expecting some sort of Android apps running on it. Nope. Nothing. Just really shit Chrome OS, with the newest update. It refused to work with my SD card, once I managed to get it working and simply pasted some files on my PC, the card was unreadable again. So I unlocked the device and installed Linux. Now I have an OK thing for remote management of my server, browsing, VS Code and DOS games emulation. I didn’t expect much from ChromeOS, but it took me by surprise how shit it was.
How’d you put Linux on it? Full Linux or the parallel version?
Mint. https://github.com/edwinm/linux-on-chromebook I have 256gb microsd, that I install apps on.
sounds like google is doing more evil yet again all for ai datacenters more ai slop more hallucinations
They couldn’t even live up to their initial promise of “Don’t be evil,” and yet people thought they might not do it this time?
