Chromebooks: Updates and Reboots Required
03/15/2014As I continue to explore the Chromebook ecosystem I am learning more about the inner workings of Chrome OS. One of the commonly repeated phrases I often hear is that Chromebooks do not need to be updated. What others really mean is that Chromebooks have an automatic update system that is advertised as a key benefit over other traditional operating systems.
This week I dug a little deeper and found that my Chromebook was not up to date so I forced a manual update. You can do this by going to the “Hamburger” icon then selecting “Settings” and finally click on the “Help” menu as illustrated in the screenshot below.
Here is a link to a little more detail about the Chrome OS automatic update system:
This entire update process took between 5 and 10 minutes to complete and most surprisingly required a “reboot” of the system to complete the updates. Compared to the Windows or OSX operating system this Chrome OS update was a much faster process.
There has been a lot of talk surrounding Chromebooks and about the hands-off approach required of the IT department but my first experience with an update seemed all too familiar. Both Windows and OSX do automatic updates that can be scheduled to happen in the background. Not so different than the Chromebook approach, after all Chrome OS is based on Linux and it should come as no surprise that Linux updates also need to happen regularly.
Perhaps it is my old age that causes my skepticism when I hear “sales people” make promises about ease of use, magical self-updates, and promises of no intervention will be required of the IT department. Similar promises were made when the iPad burst onto the education scene and many IT departments are still struggling with the management aspects of iPads 4 years later. In the end it is the users that turn to the IT department to "fix it" and to do their best supporting the end users based upon the promises made on the front-end, planning upfront can alleviate a lot of headaches down the road. Asking the right questions and establishing a working pilot project first can expose areas of concern before going all out on an untested solution.
The wireless infrastructure alone required of “always connected” devices like Chromebooks must be dealt with at the beginning of a project in order to have a successful rollout. It should come as no surprise that additional funding will be required to fortify wireless infrastructure so plan accordingly.
When you have a fleet of hundreds or thousands of devices these update cycles need to be managed and the IT department will need a plan to roll out updates just like traditional operating systems. Fortunately Chromebooks have basic functionality and use a much simpler OS philosophy. Updates therefore are much smaller and faster to download and install.
We are at the beginning of the new era of cloud computing with Chromebooks and it remains to be seen if they continue keep their current streamlined functionality or if they gradually become more bloated as new functionality is added to match todays other mature operating systems.
Keep on Learning,
Tom Grissom, Ph.D.
@tomgrissom
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar