Starting next year, Google will provide Chromebook security patches and software upgrades for up to a decade. This will effectively guarantee that no existing Chromebook will expire within the next two years.
However, a Google spokesperson added the caveat that, “In making changes to the expiration policy, we have to coordinate with each partner making any component in these devices. It requires a security and performance guarantee from the makers.” Other Google sources indicated that the major Chromebook vendors are expected to work with the company to extend their hardware’s lifespan.
Possible to take the hardware, wipe it, install Linux and not worry about expiration?
Depends on the hardware. If it’s an x86 then that’s most certainly a yes, if it’s an ARM then YMMV.
Even for x86 it depends. Often they’re built like Android devices and they have weird hardware that isn’t properly supported by kernel.org Linux. My prematurely end-of-life Chromebook has problems with sound and thermals and longevity when running regular Linux. I replaced it with a laptop that has official Linux support. The build quality to price value is worse, but it’s not hobbled by inconsistent, half-hearted hardware support over an artificially limited lifetime. Even before it was end-of-life, my premium Google Chromebook had to wait to receive software features that were available on newer Chromebooks because the drivers weren’t compatible with new kernel versions.
To be fair, that’s the case with Linux and laptops in general right? Unless you’ve got a mainstream/popular model (or a brand known to work well with, or officially supports Linux), issues like sound, battery life and even suspend, wifi etc are fairly common. Which is why one of the most common Linux questions (besides “which distro”) is “which laptop”.