On Sun, May 28, 2023 at 10:25 PM James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
> > Do they actually "brick"? On Mon, May 29, 2023 at 11:20 AM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk < talk@gtalug.org> wrote: > > So: I would think that this is stupid reporting but a useful but partial > Public Service Announcement. > > So I did a bit more digging. In summary, for us, as Linux users, Chromebooks don't hard-"brick", as I suggested they might. But it seems that, in a school exam situation, Chromebooks without the latest security patches cannot access certain required examination sites used in some (many? all?) US states. A Chromebook that can't access these sites may as well be a brick for the school districts that bought them. The source of the article's claims are from a report by the Public Interest Research Group, "Chromebook Churn" (report link: https://publicinterestnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/PIRG-Chromebook-Churn-Full-Report-May-1.pdf , intro blurb: https://pirg.org/colorado/foundation/resources/chromebook-churn-report-highlights-problems-of-short-lived-laptops-in-schools/ ). PIRG is deeply involved in the Right to Repair movement. The most direct citation to a "these Chromebooks won't work"-type statement is from “SKSD Needs $2.8 Million in 2026 to Replace Chromebooks,” Kitsap Daily News, January 25, 2023, https://www.kitsapdailynews.com/news/sksd-needs-2-8-million-in-2026-to-replace-chromebooks/ ... [director of information technology services] Lyons said the state schools chief office claims that unsupported Chromebooks will not work for tests such as the Smarter Balanced Assessments. That's not the strongest source one could have, but at least one could follow through a paper trail by querying the named parties. The other claim that the report makes ("Chromebooks can no longer access services which require the device to pass a security check") cites a WSJ article --- Nicole Nguyen, “Before You Buy a Chromebook, Check the Expiration Date,” Wall Street Journal, March 6, 2022, sec. Tech, https://www.wsj.com/articles/before-you-buy-a-chromebook-check-the-expiration-date-11646538322 --- which doesn't seem to support PIRG's assertion. The report also seems to claim that many school boards panicked into buying refurbished Chromebooks when lockdown hit. These devices may already have been 3-4 years old when they were bought in 2020, so might only have a short time left before they AUE. Because they were bought with local tax money, this is a big fighty topic in much of the USA. Another point that the report makes, in line with PIRG's sustainability/right to repair goal, is that many Chromebooks are not designed for repairability, with the basic computing hardware staying much the same but spares changing with every year of release. The thing about networked computing devices in the K12 environment is that you have a huge cohort of (bored) students willing to try security exploits for fun and peer kudos. We* might've thought it pretty cool to get a copy of Drug Wars on our TI-83 calculators from a friend who got it from their older brother, but today's inventive high school student can offer a much larger threat with shared documents of attack/gaming scripts spread internationally. I wouldn't want to be the tech support on the end of that mess. Stewart --- *: I am too old for calculators that could play games. The most competitive thing we could do was racing to 100 against a friend: enter "1 ++" then hit the = key really fast until the display showed 100. The Casio FX-82 was the fastest at this, and a couple of friends had to beg their parents for new ones when they wrecked their calculators through over-zealous racing.
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