Windows 10 is dying next week, for a given value of “dying.” Microsoft is offering extended security support with some strings, and it’s not like we haven’t seen major Windows releases go out of service before… but we’re in a very different world than when Windows 8 faded away. Google is making the best of it, offering up Chromebooks and ChromeOS as a less aggravating alternative.
“Time for a new laptop? Get Chromebook Plus,” says an advertisement on Google’s home page, apparently shown to Windows 10 users who have probably heard that their PC’s days are numbered.
“With security fixes for Windows 10 ending this October, switch to the laptop that has never had a virus,” it goes on, in contextual ads spotted by Windows Latest. The linked page shows off a scary blue screen on a dated-looking laptop, spinning into the newest, sleekest Chromebook models, including the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus.
This is pretty darn good marketing, Google. With Microsoft pushing and pushing hard for users to get onto Windows 11—even when there’s nothing wrong with Windows 10 and plenty of people have no need of a new, expensive device—there are a lot of people souring on Windows for the very first time right now. Between the unpleasant proposal of Windows 11 and its constant advertising pushes, not to mention Copilot “AI” that’s questionably useful at best and just downright dangerous at worst, and the fact that many people now use their phones or tablets as primary web devices, it’s a great time to offer up some different choices.
That being said, it’s my job to be a devil’s consumer advocate here. Chromebooks do have an excellent 10-year support promise for the latest models, but be aware that the timer starts when the device is first put on the market, not when you buy your specific laptop. And Google’s insistence that ChromeOS has “never had a virus” is a bit sus. It’s true that viruses and other malware made specifically for Windows don’t affect the Linux-based ChromeOS… but there are still plenty of malicious extensions you can install on a Chromebook, plus Android apps, both of which occasionally get through the official security measures on Google’s Chrome Web Store and Play Store, respectively. And nothing stops standard phishing and other social engineering attacks on Chromebooks. Plus, both ChromeOS and Android are now chock-full of Google’s own flavor of “AI” (Gemini), arguably about the same level of annoying as Windows and Copilot.
So I’d encourage Google to lean into the 10-year support promise (with the aforementioned asterisk on the timeline), the fact that Chromebooks are generally cheaper than similarly-equipped Windows laptops, and that they’re also easier to keep running smoothly if something goes wrong. Even so, I have to tip my hat to Google for striking while the iron—and the temper of hundreds of millions of Windows users—is hot.
