Google plans to roll out updates only for five years from the time of release of the Chromebook model.
Chromebooks have always been comparable to Macs and Laptops as the light-weight software that runs it can be more reliable and manageable by minimum hardware. This is possible, thanks to automatic security patches that arrive regularly, in fact every six weeks, since the release of a particular model.
Chromebooks have come a long way, with solid performance.
However, beyond five years, Google may or may not update the device depending on the model. Although its End of Life policy states that five years is the limit for updates and support, third party producers of Chromebooks such as Samsung and Acer have few of their Chromebook models slated for unofficial obsolescence this month.
Although once the Chromebooks stop receiving updates, it cannot be said if the Chromebook becomes unsafe to use, since it uses a more secure operating system than PC or Mac. That is all possible due to technical terms like verified boot mechanisms, build-in data encryption and sand-boxing. Even when they are unpatched, Chromebooks are safer than Android-enabled devices.
Other operating systems like Microsoft’s Windows promise support for at least 10 years after their release. More than 600 million PCs today are over five years old – and running perfectly fine thanks to continued updates.
Nevertheless, Chromebooks have managed to fit affordable computing with reliable software. Although nothing related to Google’s End of Life Policy for newer Chromebooks has been stated yet, it can still be considered a good alternative to the PCs and the Macs.
And if all else fails and the Chromebooks do become unreliable, one can always boot Linux – no End of Life policy for that OS.