Comment by spiralcoaster
17 hours ago
What's funny is that these days if I see a Google product that I'm even remotely interested in, I just immediately write it off because I know it's something they will kill in a very short time frame.
It's just never worth the hassle of buying/using a Google product. Never.
Their hardware is usually fine when it comes to support. Google announces the support lifetime of their devices and sticks to it, with feature updates coming to things like phones even after the support period ended through things like app stores. Just check the support lifetime of the device before buying (early Pixels only had 2 years of support, as was announced at release).
Their cloud services are nothing but hot air but their hardware support has been excellent for the past few years. Easily beats other major manufacturers. I'm still annoyed that Apple won't tell you how long they will support their hardware. Other competitors manage to be even worse.
"support" meaning drivers and basic security updates, sure.
but if you buy this for the gemini integration, what are the odds that google actually sticks with that, or two years from now are you going to have a laptop that lags behind the feature set available in the gemini app for mac because they didn't sell enough of these to bother continuing development?
The Gemini app has been backported to at least Android 14 as far as I could tell (that's the oldest OS I saw it on), probably further.
Hard to say they're going to keep giving you new features, but buying a device for the future things that may be brought to it is always a massive gamble, like buying a Macbook for their failed promise of Apple Intelligence or a Windows laptop for the promised advantages of Copilot.
If the device works well enough to be worth the money, it'll keep working. If you want fancy stuff in the future, hold off on buying new hardware and wait until the stuff you want is actually available.
Google also has a better track record than some companies (cough apple) of keeping their devices unlockable/open enough that they can have a second life regardless of whether google keeps up on the software side.
You can install linux on the nexus 7 tablets.
You can install linux on the old PixelBook or Chromebook Pixel.
An iPad bought at the same time as the nexus 7 (the original iPad air) has become a useless insecure brick that can't even load modern websites, let alone support linux. The nexus 7 can have linux or a custom android rom flashed to work fine, albeit with a pretty crappy processor.
Hmmmmmmmm
Nest Secure Google Home Stadia Daydream Glass Nexus Pixel Slate Pixelbook Chromecast Audio OnHub Jamboard
I don't have most of those, but from the entire list I only recognise Stadia as something that stopped working entirely, and I got my full purchase price back for that.
Chromecast still works great.
I think there's a difference between cancelled (or renamed in the case of Google Home and Nexus) product lines and something no longer working. Most of that list falls into the former, but otherwise probably work fine.
This Googlebook will probably be a lot like the Pixelbook. Probably cancelled after 1 generation, but still usable for 5-10 years as you'd expect from a laptop.
My chromecast audio still works great. No idea about the rest, but that I do know.
They refunded me all the money I spent on the Stadia + games and unlocked the video game controllers so I can use them with other systems... my only regret is that I didn't buy more
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The list of departed google products could be put to the music of the names of the countries of the world.
My chromecast audio still works great.
My Pixel 3A stopped receiving security updates after less than 3 years. I remember Google did this to start using their own chips in their phones.
Two or three years is not even close to the support Apple provides. It sealed the deal for me and I switched to iPhone.
As was disclosed on Google's product support pages the day of launch.
These days, Google promises at least 7 years, which is longer than most iPhone people seem to use theirs. There's no doubt their limited support windows sucked in the past, but none of that was hidden or a surprise.
Apple could stop updating the iPhone 15 tomorrow and they wouldn't be breaking any promises to anyone. They refuse to publish even a minimum support period.
My Pixelbook from 2017 still receives regular Chrome OS updates.
You're on hacker news though, so you can install linux on it: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Google_Pixel_3a_(google-s...
Pixel devices have historically been really good about letting you unlock the bootloader and install what you want, so even if Google drops support, the community can keep it going.
Apple devices just turn into useless bricks once apple deems them too old. Frankly, I think apple should be legally required to allow users to unlock devices, like you pay for the device, you should be able to use the hardware.
Yes, they've since more than doubled the support lifetimes to seven years.
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Pixels receive at least 7 years now.
> early Pixels only had 2 years of support, as was announced at release
They also announced a promotion for unlimited cloud storage of photos and then shrank and JPEG massacred the photos. That part of my photo library is still visibly trashy to this very day. Every time I browse my photos, I am reminded that google did this.
yeah, even on product lines that they kill (like Stadia) they usually do right by the user (eg they refunded everyone, both on hardware and software people bought on the platform).
I thought Apple does tell you how long they'll support hardware.
For example: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102772
That page shows "vintage" products, which is a category they apply after "5 to 7 years". It describes replacement parts and (bought) maintenance service in store locations.
They don't state how long they will provide software updates.
That's not how long they will provide software support. It's how long you can get a hardware repair. Some "vintage" products will get current software support but not others. Some products have lost software support before even reaching "vintage" like the first Gen iPad.
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My experience with Google hardware has been the opposite. Three early Pixel phones died within a year or two, and pretty abysmal experience with Pixel Buds. They'd send me replacements, but I tired of them breaking.
I switched to an iPhone after being a long-time Android fan. Haven't looked back. Converted my wife to an iPhone too. Apple is better at hardware.
iPhones also receive security updates for a long time. I buy iPhone 3+ generation old brand new at the Apple store, and it... works really well.
Apple might not specify a time upfront but they do consistently support hardware for a good length of time. IPhones generally get OS updates for 5-6 years and security for at least a couple more.
I’ve never used anything they made long enough to get there.
What about Nest? It's great that they announced a lifetime and stuck with it I guess? Sucks for anyone who bought into the ecosystem. You'd have to pay me to try and adopt more google products at this point, otherwise it's almost certainly sooner or later going to be deemed a waste of money/time.
> Their hardware is usually fine when it comes to support. Google announces the support lifetime of their devices and sticks to it
If they announce a support lifetime they stick to it.
For other products they'll just decide they're done with it and give you a little warning period. Maybe some store credit or another bonus depending on the product.
> Their hardware is usually fine when it comes to support.
Pixel stands were horrible. And discontinued.
My nest thermostat disagrees with your optimism.
I was interested but then just immediately wrote it off because of the AI-centric marketing.
Why anything AI make me want to buy a whole laptop? I can use AI from websites, apps, etc. already.
exactly what i was thinking; its like as if in the early 2000s someone was advertising a laptop because you can search google with it...
Tbf there were ads like this, keyboards with inane “internet” buttons, etc.
> I was interested but then just immediately wrote it off because of the AI-centric marketing.
Same here.
We're not the target audience for this product. In fact, we're as far as possible from it.
I argue this is both true and not true in stark ways with Google. Just look at Google Groups listserv, it's been running forever and arguably mosts used neighborhood listservs globally and has been very stable.. all largely for free. On the other hand, new experiments get chopped very quickly at Google. So, it's more like if the service can survive 2 years, then Google generally keeps it around*.
* unless it gets merged dozens of times into other similar projects.
It doesn’t matter to me that some of their products have longevity. I don’t know which they will keep and which they will discontinue and there are many vendors out there who have a better track record.
Chromebook has been around for 15yrs
Pretty good run. Wonder how many of those devices will support Aluminium OS and how long they'll support ChromeOS after Aluminium launches.
If I buy one today, is it guaranteed to run the newest OS in 3 years?
Unless Google have magically solved the Android update process, getting updates are the biggest downgrade when it comes to switching from ChromeOS to Aluminium OS.
Back to a world where every device needs the OS specifically built for it.
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Googlebook dot Google.
Pixelbook.
Chromebook.
Google Pixel.
What's next? Nestbook? Drivepad? Geminiphone?
A laptop built entirely around AI, which is definitely a stable business that will be around in its current form indefinitely and whose cost definitely won't go up once Google needs to start making a profit on it.
Agreed. I have been an early adopter of so many google products. I have been burned every single time. They have systemically and carefully sabotaged any trust the industry had in them.
If they don't kill it, they might kill your account with no recourse, or some automatic process might lock you out of certain features, or some major bug might leave you staring at a forum post with a "I have the same question" numbering in the thousands.
They'll be killing off Android any day now.
You can only dream. Even if they do it - there are billion devices that will hope google will build a new one.
And majority of the world like it.
If you want to share room with RMS and hope for GNU Hurd - do it.
The products that get killed are the ones that can't run ads or get run through the analytics wringer.
I'm sure they'll kill their TPU business any day now, too.
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Doesn't the Google Play Store account for something like 15% of Google's revenue?
I really like the Pixel phone.
And when they cancelled Stadia I got a full refund including all game purchases, so it wasn’t that bad.
Agreed, yet I have a Pixel 8 (2nd hand) right now. The hope is that I don't care about their support anyway, it's just about GrapheneOS.
Not to mention the “customer” “service”. I have yet to talk to a human at google.
Same, I give all Google products a wide berth.
This is just chromeos+Gemini
No, that's an Android desktop OS which ChromeOS is not
Chromecast has been great for years and years, maybe they just kill the crap that should have never existed just like everybody else
I've had great luck with their hardware (phones / tablets) and they get updates frequently and for quite a long time.
Same for a while. OTOH a Pixel 9 Pro screen of a close friend broke 7 times in a year.
That sounds more like a problem with said friend :-)
7 times also sounds... well... Like a lot
Even if they don't kill it, this is certain to be even more privacy invading than their pre-AI offerings.
It is never for people like you. They try a lot. Something works and many not.
Some people like ikea - try to build. Others want just works items. Why not...
I feel the same way. Looks neat. But hard pass. I've been burned several times.
Google will probably kill off and shut down Google Search at this rate.
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As much as Stadia was a gut punch, at least for consumers Google did pretty well at making us whole (Full refunds for all Stadia purchases across the board) [0]
Obviously that's not much recompense if you were a game developer lured into some exclusive publishing deal, or even just someone buying a Stadia Controller, but c'est la vie I suppose
[0] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/11/google-refunding-thr...
> or even just someone buying a Stadia Controller
Getting the Stadia controller goes a long way, methinks. If you have one laying around, you can install the de-clouding firmware Google provided that converts it into a Bluetooth controller with excellent ergonomics and feel.
People who badmouth Stadia's shutdown expose themselves qw non-buyers. I'm yet to hear of a better product wind-down than Stadia: every single buyer got full refunds for games and hardware (i.e Chromecast). The firmware to convert Stadia controllers to plain ol' Bluetooth was a nice parting gift.
So whats next. Apple will force corners... Glass. Microsoft will push copilot. Firefox will push AI.
Are you waiting for w3m or curl?
It will also vacuum up your user data and use it to train AI models and such.
Google Fiber has been advertising a lot in my area. Despite the legacy ISP being as bad as most entrenched ISPs I can't see myself switching and adding another Google product into my life.
It might be cheaper and faster now, but will that still be true in a few years once Google has gotten bored with the project? Are they going to use this service to spam me with AI slop like they do everywhere else? What happens if a Google bot nukes my Google account, will that cut off my entire internet with no warning as well?
I'm not famous enough to raise a social media storm when they screw me over so it's a big risk doing business with the company.
GFiber isn't owned by Google anymore, which is why they changed the name. They're now part of Astound.
Not yet, sale hasn’t closed yet. They changed their name in advance of the sale though.
> What happens if a Google bot nukes my Google account, will that cut off my entire internet with no warning as well?
Yeah, the general approach to get support has been to be famous or to marry a Google employee, but the churn rate on Google employees is at the point that the latter is unsustainable.