Chromebook churn is becoming a big problem for schools, but who is to blame?

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: When the Covid-19 pandemic prompted schools to conduct virtual classes over the Internet to comply with shelter at home orders, many turned to low-cost Chromebooks to ensure every student could work remotely. For many districts, it was the most affordable route forward but now just a couple of years removed from the height of the pandemic, another issue has become abundantly clear.

According to a recent report from the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund, schools are now starting to see these Chromebooks fail and create piles of electronic waste. What's particularly annoying is that in many instances, the hardware in these systems is still perfectly fine.

The report highlights the four year average expiration date for software updates. Once a Chromebook hits its death date, it can no longer receive updates or access secure websites. Aside from the obvious security concerns, teachers have reported that expired laptops are unable to access websites for state testing.

The Chromebook Churn report also draws attention to the fact that finding spare parts for used laptops is a challenge, how scarcity can lead to high prices, and how evolving designs make it impossible to mix and match parts between systems. In one specific example, the report noted that six manufacturers made what it called non-functional changes to the plastic bezel on their Chromebook 11 models "that made these parts incompatible from one model to the next."

Doubling the lifespan of Chromebooks for students in the US could save taxpayers $1.8 billion, the report claimed, assuming no additional maintenance costs.

The group's points make a lot of sense on paper but I'm not sure how well they'd translate to the real world. Is it really feasible to expect a low-cost Chromebook with entry-level hardware to last 8-10 years? What's the experience going to be like for a student using a tried Chromebook in year nine?

I'm all for manufacturers expanding access to spare parts and those that wear out after heavy use, but to blast a Chromebook maker for not using the same design across every model seems a bit excessive. Many companies have experimented with the idea of modular electronics like laptops in the past, and none have found much success. The breakneck speed of tech innovation clashes with the concept and frankly, people desire shiny new electronics.

Image credit: Peter Mui

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https://www.techspot.com/news/98423-chromebook-churn-becoming-big-problem-schools-but-who.html

 

[Xenon]

I really wish schools would at least try and get something better. They're over here paying $300 US for a Chromebook that's built like a pair of $2 earbuds from Wish, and the Chromebooks only last a few years. I'm typing this during my English class on an abysmally slow HP Chromebook X360 G11 EE

 

[dangh]

Should be possible to install Linux on those laptops. I'm actually surprised to learn that chrome os offer only 4 years of support - if they really looking to take on Windows they need to change their approach.

 

[yRaz]

So here's an idea, why don't they NOT USE CHROME OS. For what students need to do you can run a Mint or Ubuntu on some very low end hardware and it runs very well. For writing papers, doing research and the occasional video there is absolutely nothing wrong with these things. Google "adds features" over time to chrome OS that takes up resources and then people need to upgrade the hardware. Considering that ChromeOS is just a Linux fork ANYWAY I don't see why people couldn't run a lighter Linux distro to keep the hardware running. All these things need to do is basically run a browser. I have a browser laptop with 2 gigs and 2 cores running Mint and it does everything from writing emails to googling things just fine.

Oh, that's right, Chromebooks have a hardware lock that you have to disable by disassembling the thing if you want to install an alternative OS on it. Still, there is absolutely no reason this hard is no longer capable of the basic needs of a student. Heck, I remember writing papers on a machine with a 128mb of pc133 and that was considered highend at the time. This bloatware needs to stop,

 

[Danrar]

My kids are using 8 year old Chromebooks from their school district. It's amazing how long they want to hold on to these things.

"Oh, that's right, Chromebooks have a hardware lock that you have to disable by disassembling the thing if you want to install an alternative OS on it."'

This hasn't been required in YEARS. Google has required developer mode be software unlockable for a very long time.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Apple products are used in my school district. Every 4 years the laptops are replaced and I think it's the same with the iPads. iPads stay at the elementary school (unless there's forced remote learning), middle school kids can take their iPads home if they want or need to and same with the high schoolers and their Apple laptops.

I'm not sure about their failure rate, but I figure it can't be any worse than Chromebooks, same with the fact it's a lot of ewaste.

 

[Danrar]

Apple products are used in my school district. Every 4 years the laptops are replaced and I think it's the same with the iPads. iPads stay at the elementary school (unless there's forced remote learning), middle school kids can take their iPads home if they want or need to and same with the high schoolers and their Apple laptops.

I'm not sure about their failure rate, but I figure it can't be any worse than Chromebooks, same with the fact it's a lot of ewaste.

Well 4 year old Macbooks would be far more likely to be resold.

 

[yRaz]

My kids are using 8 year old Chromebooks from their school district. It's amazing how long they want to hold on to these things.

"Oh, that's right, Chromebooks have a hardware lock that you have to disable by disassembling the thing if you want to install an alternative OS on it."'

This hasn't been required in YEARS. Google has required developer mode be software unlockable for a very long time.

on higher end hardware it is still a thing. I was considering buying a chrome book on a laptop with "higher end" hardware because they're a few hundred dollars cheaper than a comparable windows laptop. It very much still is a thing. Oddly, it's really on Chromebooks with x86 hardware, not arm

 

[antiproduct]

As a sysadmin at a school, I can comment to this.
First off, the AUP (expiration date) for Chromebooks varies by model. I think Google changed the AUP date to 6 years for new models as of a couple years ago. So having a 6 year expiration date does kind suck, but the device is still usable. We've started giving expired Chromebooks to kids who destroy their first two... or three... or five. Which really gets me to the next point --- most of these computers are destroyed by kids using them. There's a wide range of kids on the destruction spectrum, from those who are amazingly clean with the laptop to some that bring them in where it looked like they threw it a couple times and then fed it to their dog. The majority fall in the middle somewhere and basically after about 3-4 years the whole thing is gross and scratched up enough that reusing them and giving them to another kid would just be pretty sad. So it really doesn't matter much that it's a Chromebook, kids would do this to just about any computer. While the motherboard might be fine, a lot of times everything else isn't. Also, a lot of times the ports on the computer (USB and/or charging ports) are also pretty messed up. Kids walk away with things plugged in or throw their laptop in their bag on top of some food. Or just shove a pencil in the audio port. Also spills happen on laptops, more so with kids.

Prior to Chromebooks though, I had a fleet of Dell Latitudes in the classrooms that generally lasted 5-7 years, usually requiring screen or battery replacements.... kids love to carry laptops with a claw grip on screens. Our next plan is to return back to laptop carts and push out all our Chromebook fleet to any kid who doesn't have a computer at home.

 

[OortCloud]

Why not go back to the old-way. Dumb terminals. Then have some centralised system serving up internet, video hosting, email etc. In that way the hardware is pretty much irrelevant - a reasonably high def screen and a keyboard. Not software updates required as its all just remote. Install some terminal s/w on those crappy Chromebooks and they could be repurposed for a start.

 

[Danrar]

Why not go back to the old-way. Dumb terminals. Then have some centralised system serving up internet, video hosting, email etc. In that way the hardware is pretty much irrelevant - a reasonably high def screen and a keyboard. Not software updates required as its all just remote. Install some terminal s/w on those crappy Chromebooks and they could be repurposed for a start.

Dumb terminals still run software and that software still needs to be updated.

 

[p51d007]

WORST thing they did was shut everything down and go "remote" with these kids, over a virus with a 99% survival rate.

 

[Tom Yum]

As a sysadmin at a school, I can comment to this.
First off, the AUP (expiration date) for Chromebooks varies by model. I think Google changed the AUP date to 6 years for new models as of a couple years ago. So having a 6 year expiration date does kind suck, but the device is still usable. We've started giving expired Chromebooks to kids who destroy their first two... or three... or five. Which really gets me to the next point --- most of these computers are destroyed by kids using them. There's a wide range of kids on the destruction spectrum, from those who are amazingly clean with the laptop to some that bring them in where it looked like they threw it a couple times and then fed it to their dog. The majority fall in the middle somewhere and basically after about 3-4 years the whole thing is gross and scratched up enough that reusing them and giving them to another kid would just be pretty sad. So it really doesn't matter much that it's a Chromebook, kids would do this to just about any computer. While the motherboard might be fine, a lot of times everything else isn't. Also, a lot of times the ports on the computer (USB and/or charging ports) are also pretty messed up. Kids walk away with things plugged in or throw their laptop in their bag on top of some food. Or just shove a pencil in the audio port. Also spills happen on laptops, more so with kids.

Prior to Chromebooks though, I had a fleet of Dell Latitudes in the classrooms that generally lasted 5-7 years, usually requiring screen or battery replacements.... kids love to carry laptops with a claw grip on screens. Our next plan is to return back to laptop carts and push out all our Chromebook fleet to any kid who doesn't have a computer at home.

It is 8 years now (from the time of manufacture) which is well beyond the lifespan of any laptop in the $300 price point in a school setting.

You hit the nail on the head about the practical reality of laptops surviving long enough to reach that point in a school environment, a point this paper seems to neglect. No laptop is likely to physically survive a school environment for 8 years, regardless of how repairable it is. Kids are just brutal, especially at younger age groups. My experience has been the same as yours. They get dropped, have drinks poured in them, thrown into school bags unprotected (which are then thrown around, or have drink bottles/lunch leak in them), vomited on, all sorts of things. Unless you issued Panasonic Toughbooks at $3k a pop, your best bet is something that you can afford to replace frequently.

The paper also doesn't compare apples with apples. A $300 Windows laptop with unreplaceable EMMC, soldered ram, glued in battery and cheap plastic hinges is going to last just as poorly, whilst costing more and having more security issues for the school to have to deal with. More expensive hardware might be nicer, but will still be destroyed well before the duration of software support becomes a problem.

 

[toooooot]

So here's an idea, why don't they NOT USE CHROME OS. For what students need to do you can run a Mint or Ubuntu on some very low end hardware and it runs very well. For writing papers, doing research and the occasional video there is absolutely nothing wrong with these things. Google "adds features" over time to chrome OS that takes up resources and then people need to upgrade the hardware. Considering that ChromeOS is just a Linux fork ANYWAY I don't see why people couldn't run a lighter Linux distro to keep the hardware running. All these things need to do is basically run a browser. I have a browser laptop with 2 gigs and 2 cores running Mint and it does everything from writing emails to googling things just fine.

Oh, that's right, Chromebooks have a hardware lock that you have to disable by disassembling the thing if you want to install an alternative OS on it. Still, there is absolutely no reason this hard is no longer capable of the basic needs of a student. Heck, I remember writing papers on a machine with a 128mb of pc133 and that was considered high end at the time. This bloatware needs to stop,

You know the problem. People don't know how to use it. And when they manage to learn basic skills they realize they need to learn to use different apps too.
People who are not interested in technology don't know Linux.

 

[yRaz]

You know the problem. People don't know how to use it. And when they manage to learn basic skills they realize they need to learn to use different apps too.
People who are not interested in technology don't know Linux.

You don't have to "know" Linux. ChromeOS does everything through the browser and there is no shortage chromium browsers.

And, while we're talking about "learning" I'd like to point out that these laptops are for schools. These would be the perfect laptops for kids to learn Linux on. Particularly because kids are curious and mischievous. They will figure out Linux just so they can get around the school restrictions. The schools save money, the kids learn more, and we SIGNIFICANTLY reduce e-waste. It's a win-win-win.

As much of a critic as I am of ChromeOS I saw how popular chromebooks were in schools and said "thank god kids are learning something other than Windows or Mac."

 

[GhostLegion]

Should be possible to install Linux on those laptops. I'm actually surprised to learn that chrome os offer only 4 years of support - if they really looking to take on Windows they need to change their approach.

It doesn't. Modern Chromebooks offer double that, 8 years of support. That was the average.

 

[bviktor]

It's extremely ironic since at the same time, Google's promoting ChromeOS Flex as the ultimate solution to keep old computers running.

Isn't that an option here?

 

[GhostLegion]

So here's an idea, why don't they NOT USE CHROME OS. For what students need to do you can run a Mint or Ubuntu on some very low end hardware and it runs very well. For writing papers, doing research and the occasional video there is absolutely nothing wrong with these things. Google "adds features" over time to chrome OS that takes up resources and then people need to upgrade the hardware. Considering that ChromeOS is just a Linux fork ANYWAY I don't see why people couldn't run a lighter Linux distro to keep the hardware running. All these things need to do is basically run a browser. I have a browser laptop with 2 gigs and 2 cores running Mint and it does everything from writing emails to googling things just fine.

Oh, that's right, Chromebooks have a hardware lock that you have to disable by disassembling the thing if you want to install an alternative OS on it. Still, there is absolutely no reason this hard is no longer capable of the basic needs of a student. Heck, I remember writing papers on a machine with a 128mb of pc133 and that was considered highend at the time. This bloatware needs to stop,

Spoken like someone who hasn't been a student in some time. I tried using a Surface laptop that only had 4GB of RAM. That was painful. When your textbook is virtual, research papers are in PDFs and you need a Word document open too. Well, the requirements for getting stuff done can quickly build. God forbid you have Spotify/Pandora open too so you can listen to music while you work or a Podcast. And that's just for basic stuff. Anything that isn't paper writing will be even more. It isn't crazy to think that high school students will have the same requirements as me, a college student.

 

[GhostLegion]

WORST thing they did was shut everything down and go "remote" with these kids, over a virus with a 99% survival rate.

Congrats on saying possibly the dumbest thing I've read all day. Have you considered the fact that perhaps the survival rate is good BECAUSE of those precautions? Y'know, because it was incredibly infectious, if no precautions were taken, more people would have gotten infected sooner and thus given the medical field an absolute tsunami of patients? So not everyone who got infected would have received the care they needed? Remember that whole thing about "flattening" the curve? Or are you determined to stick to your viewpoint no matter what, because if it's that, then don't even bother responding.

 

[yRaz]

Spoken like someone who hasn't been a student in some time. I tried using a Surface laptop that only had 4GB of RAM. That was painful. When your textbook is virtual, research papers are in PDFs and you need a Word document open too. Well, the requirements for getting stuff done can quickly build. God forbid you have Spotify/Pandora open too so you can listen to music while you work or a Podcast. And that's just for basic stuff. Anything that isn't paper writing will be even more. It isn't crazy to think that high school students will have the same requirements as me, a college student.

Open a VW, install a Linux distro in it. Give it 1 core amd 1gb of ram. You'll be able to browse the internet, listen to music and open PDFs no problem. There is nothing wrong with the hardware. If anything, these companies want people like you to think these devices are obsolete, they are not. It is the software that's the problem, not the hardware. Look up the original specs to run crysis. If those machines can play that game they can play music, look at PDFs and run a word processor.

 

[GhostLegion]

Open a VW, install a Linux distro in it. Give it 1 core amd 1gb of ram. You'll be able to browse the internet, listen to music and open PDFs no problem. There is nothing wrong with the hardware. If anything, these companies want people like you to think these devices are obsolete, they are not. It is the software that's the problem, not the hardware. Look up the original specs to run crysis. If those machines can play that game they can play music, look at PDFs and run a word processor.

Hahaha, you're funny. I've since moved onto a better laptop and am currently running Linux (Fedora 38). With JUST my browser open (9 tabs) I am sitting at over 5GB of usage. You are playing yourself if you think 1 core and 1GB of RAM is in any way suitable for ANYTHING today. Windows has it's fair share of bloat and I spent a week killing and uninstalling applications/processes to get the most usage out of that laptop (Surface is not kind to Linux so it had to be Windows) and I still could only get it down to 2.5GB of RAM at desktop and I used as many FOSS applications as I could, such as Okular because I could tweak RAM usage there. Linux is not some magic pill that can turn anything into a working machine unless a person is willing to comb through and tune the machine to the n'th degree. Which is just not viable, I have a life to live. Multiple PDF's open and multiple tabs open and Spotify/Music player of choice would've brought that Surface to it's knees.

 

[yRaz]

Hahaha, you're funny. I've since moved onto a better laptop and am currently running Linux (Fedora 38). With JUST my browser open (9 tabs) I am sitting at over 5GB of usage. You are playing yourself if you think 1 core and 1GB of RAM is in any way suitable for ANYTHING today. Windows has it's fair share of bloat and I spent a week killing and uninstalling applications/processes to get the most usage out of that laptop (Surface is not kind to Linux so it had to be Windows) and I still could only get it down to 2.5GB of RAM at desktop and I used as many FOSS applications as I could, such as Okular because I could tweak RAM usage there. Linux is not some magic pill that can turn anything into a working machine unless a person is willing to comb through and tune the machine to the n'th degree. Which is just not viable, I have a life to live. Multiple PDF's open and multiple tabs open and Spotify/Music player of choice would've brought that Surface to it's knees.

I wish you luck in your studies

 

[GhostLegion]

I wish you luck in your studies

Thank you, I need it. Economics is kicking my ***.

 

[yRaz]

Thank you, I need it. Economics is kicking my ***.

I'm going to be very blunt on this, whatever they're teaching you in econ right now is totally irrelevant to what the economy is actually doing. If you're good with econ then I'm assuming you're good with math, change your major. Drop econ and go for straight data analytics. There is so much crossover that all of your credits probably apply and it gives you a much broader area to apply for jobs in. You can still work in econ if you want but it gives you a lot of flexibility

 

[MasterMace]

Who would have thought that trusting companies with an always online piece of hardware would do this?

Every gamer everywhere did.