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

[brucek]

Anyone procuring $1.8 Billion in laptops and not getting reasonable terms as far as hardware & software support is being pretty reckless with a lot of money. Of course that's made a lot easier to do when each individual order is going through a single school or even worse a single family.

Given the scale of taxpayer spending it would seem reasonable for the DoE to create a linux distro that could be supported long term and that meets common educational needs. They could also suggest reasonable contract terms for hardware purchases that adhere to a common platform design.

We can support extremely complicated battleships, fighter planes, and submarines over program terms measured in decades. We ought to be able to specify an educational device that can last longer than 4 years.

 

[GhostLegion]

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

Actually not very good with math, more interested in behavorial economics but that's a masters level course and I need to get through the applied economics portion first. The more advanced portions of it are tedious and annoying because they involve math that doesn't really interest me and I see more as a means to an end. Data analytics sounds boring as hell but you are correct in that most of my credits would apply. Econometrics suck. The theory is interesting is hell though even if some of it is oversimplified (and I know it is).

 

[OortCloud]

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

They don't that's the whole point. Except the remoting s/w itself, which should very rarely change and can be updated by the host, everything runs remotely. The actual remote software needs updating if that's what you mean, but only once and everybody gets the update so that's fine.

 

[kiwigraeme]

I bought my son a Lenovo - 2022 - IdeaPad Flex 5i - 2-in-1 Chromebook Intel Core i3-1115G4-13.3" FHD Touch Display - 8GB Memory - 256GB Storage for $329
So $300 gets a pretty reasonable device for school - speakers are basic though

4 years for a school one sounds about right

primary school got him an Ipad - put a glass screen protector on it - seems still going ok - just needed a new generic fast charging cable.

Chromebook should last as well- to end up as simple media streamer , simple steam games , browser etc .
as a senior imagine a laptop will set me back $1000 when he gets there - I hate buying crap.

 

[Avner Coopman]

When the police force is spacing for a new vehicle, they reach out to the manufacturer and ask for a specific list of items that will be needed for the police force, like having a solid engine, having the car stay in idle mode with the power on for an extended time, etc.
The same goes for the school board that needed to reach out to the Chromebook manufacturer and request a specific list of requirements like, 5-year parts and compatibility, battery, chargers, etc.
Only then can they order as many units as they need.

 

[captaincranky]

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.

Most exalted Prince, you have inadvertently explained the marketing model behind Windows 11.

 

[Avner Coopman]

"people like you to think these devices are obsolete" It's not about me! if you can't set updates, it's about them!

 

[BobHome]

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,

Are you forgetting the admin side of it all? Chromebooks are able to be administered, updated, provide tests and grade their results through the Admin tools available.
I don't believe Linux has this infrastructure as readily available.

 

[BobHome]

Anyone procuring $1.8 Billion in laptops and not getting reasonable terms as far as hardware & software support is being pretty reckless with a lot of money. Of course that's made a lot easier to do when each individual order is going through a single school or even worse a single family.

Given the scale of taxpayer spending it would seem reasonable for the DoE to create a linux distro that could be supported long term and that meets common educational needs. They could also suggest reasonable contract terms for hardware purchases that adhere to a common platform design.

We can support extremely complicated battleships, fighter planes, and submarines over program terms measured in decades. We ought to be able to specify an educational device that can last longer than 4 years.

$1.8 Billion might sound like a lot. But divide it by, say 30 million students = $60.

 

[yRaz]

Are you forgetting the admin side of it all? Chromebooks are able to be administered, updated, provide tests and grade their results through the Admin tools available.
I don't believe Linux has this infrastructure as readily available.

So lets seperate the server side and user side. Server side, Linux is hands down the best OS to be administered remotely. Windows has a lot of weaknesses with that and if I was running a huge network of users I would actually prefer OSX over Linux or Windows. That said, people are already administering Linux on a much higher level. Taking administering Linux VMs on multiple servers to turning it into managing user profiles would take almost no work. All of your "user cloud storage" is run using Linux. All of this stuff is already being done using Linux.

 

[pmshah]

We in India are very price sensitive especially for anything that can be classified as ';capital goods". May be one reason why Chrome books never became popular here. We seek value for money and not the bragging rights. One reason why Acer is so popular.

My daughter's 2008 Compaq laptop is still going strong although a couple of keytops are missing. Awarding contracts strictly on the bid price is not always the best idea.

 

[TheBigT42]

Install FydeOS

https://fydeos.io/

 

[hazphan]

The problem with installing Linux on these devices as the daily driver is that there isn't a one-size fits all MDM that would universally satisfy administration, compliance and flexibility of the devices. Why? Because follow the money: Apple, Google & Microsoft all profit well from schools, meaning there is more incentive to create fluid MDM solutions for those products. They are also very incentivized to get their OS in the hands of young minds to create life long customers.

Also as mentioned above, good luck getting these devices to last longer than 3-5 years due to general vandalism, back-pack fights, frisbee games, etc. You know, kid stuff. I worked as an MDM manager for K-8 school district and this is why the devices need to be refreshed often, not because of the hardware/support. I never would have dreamed issuing a student used, 8 year old iPad to a brand new student. There would more than likely be profanity and genitalia carved into every square inch by that point.

 

[zulu53]

To answer the authors question. Yes it should, and was, absolutely expected that Chromebook hardware last more than 10 years - otherwise the over consumption of the worlds resources would be too large; leading to shortages in future generations. No, the metals cannot be easily and cheaply recyled. From the software (user) perspective the hardware is capable of providing the same user experience as always meaning that only a fundamental shift in the way information is presented for educational reasons would require a change in hardware. The report is absolutely correct - the churn is unjustified except by the laziness of the industry.