Posted on 04/25/2023 7:02:37 AM PDT by AT7Saluki
A new report has found that the millions of taxpayer-funded Chromebooks that flooded schools during the pandemic are being discarded because of their expiration dates.
Chromebooks were an affordable way to help educate students during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they weren’t programmed to last. Chromebooks have a built-in “death date,” after which software support ends. Once laptops have “expired,” they don’t receive updates and can’t access secure websites.
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund shows replacement parts are both expensive and hard to obtain. In numerous cases, replacement keyboards would cost around $90, roughly half the cost of most Chromebooks. As a result, schools are now tossing the devices, creating a massive amount of electronics waste.
(Excerpt) Read more at thecentersquare.com ...
“I despise the new windows and their forced background updates”
I’m not aware of “forced background updates” on Windows 10. My systems are set to “metered connection” and don’t update, foreground or background, until I want them to.
“If you have a good line on how to update the Chromebooks to a Linux distro, you could probably make some decent money buying lots of “discarded” Chromebooks, updating with Linux and reselling”
I know the local school district is contractually obligated to recycle out-of-service Chromebooks through a specific program. No opportunity to sell or donate. Not sure if this is the case with most or all districts.
Make sense and keeps the troops happy...
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