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Built-in software ‘death dates’ are sending thousands of schools’ Chromebooks to the recycling bin(www.mercurynews.com)

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UngodlyAudrey🏳️‍⚧️@beehaw.org
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technology@beehaw.org
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There are few things quite as emblematic of late stage capitalism than the concept of “planned obsolescence”.

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art@lemmy.ml
31 points

All of these machines make for decent Linux laptops. I picked up an EOL Chromebook for $35 last year and installed Debian on it. Decent little machine. Not terribly fast but very useable.

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confusedbytheBasics@beehaw.org
16 points

These are Linux laptops. But yes, they’ll work better if you put your preferred distro on them.

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astroturds@startrek.website
7 points

I turned one into an Emacs machine, it was £20 and I fucking love it. It’s built like a tank too. It’s a dell Chromebook 11.

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lenathaw@lemmy.ml
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CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
4 points

Good to know. Is it still a PITA to make the firmware let you change the OS?

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art@lemmy.ml
2 points

Most modern ones it’s just commands you have to run. You can usually find an easy walk-though on the MrChromebox website. I haven’t seen one that required a jumper or anything in a LONG time.

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astroturds@startrek.website
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Mine was really easy (dell chromebook 11), just followed the instructions and I had no problems. I have another chromebook with an amd chipset that I can’t change the firmware on though (last time I checked), so if you’re planning to buy one to convert make sure you actually can do it first.

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