UngodlyAudreyđłď¸ââ§ď¸Built-in software âdeath datesâ are sending thousands of schoolsâ Chromebooks to the recycling bin
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Reviving Chromebooks with Ubuntu: Autonomous Servers, Planned Obsolescence, and Permacomputing
A tutorial and slight manifesto on reviving end-of-life Chromebooks. How to make them into autonomous servers, and why we need to rethink computing in the age of climate collapse.
Thatâs what they should be doing, but it isnât what theyâre going to do, unfortunately.
Kimathi Bradford, a 16-year-old Oakland tech repair intern, has looked into whether there was a way to replace the outdated Chromebook software with a non-Google brand, but it ended up being a lot of work, Kimathi said, and the open-source replacement wasnât up to par. âItâs like the Fritos of software,â he said. âNo one really wants to use it.â
Now, Iâm not sure if what they tried was Linux, but I wouldnât be too surprised. The younger generations grew up with smartphones; I feel as though operating systems will become more streamlined and opaque as time goes on. I suspect weâll have to contend with the phonification of mainstream computing in the coming years.
AdmetusWell, given that android would be Unix based he was probably talking about a Linux distro being a lot of work, which it can be if applied to individual computers, instead of a network.