I bought a regular Windows laptop for a homeless person almost 10 years ago, and have done some tutoring for low income folks. Most of them were not computer savvy. The also had a tendency to lose their laptops, lots of theft. My personal experience tells me that whatever solution gets picked, the easier it is to use and replace the computer, the more sustainable it will be.

Good point. Btw regarding the theft issue, the laptops stay on a nonprofit balance (or a local partner balance). Which means that families are not the owners. They sign a document of so-called "temporary usage agreement". In reality, we leave those devices to the families forever but they don't know about it. Since the document is legally binding they still avoid selling them.

Chromebooks are mass produced devices with a free operating system. This usually makes them cheaper than windows laptops, and the scale makes them cheaper than laptops without an OS.

I think the OS choice also reduces the hardware cost a little bit -- at least windows laptops usually have a bit more hardware to support more standard interfaces. Some of the Chromebooks have i2c keyboards, which I don't think passes WHQL standards, but must be a little less expensive; the ssds are tiny, and sometimes mmc which is slower, but less expensive; the keyboard have fewer buttons which reduces cost a smidge too.

But, more importantly than the hardware cost, Chrome OS is easier than Windows for a novice to manage -- updates are less intrusive, just reboot when it asks and wait about 10 seconds to be ready to work again. There's not as much to mess up, and when you do, it's usually easy to get back to factory fresh.

They are cheaper mainly because the Chrome OS is Free (and maybe because they have almost no hard inside;) As far as we know OS and antivirus licenses make Windows more expensive.

That explains why they're cheaper than Windows, but what makes them cheaper than equivalent hardware with e.g. Ubuntu?

Right. We have tested Ubuntu as well. Still figuring out what the right solutions are. Do you think Ubuntu might be a better option? Or are there any other solutions that might be relevant for us?

I would personally recommend ubuntu. It's also free and unlikely to get viruses. Plus, In my experience from helping the elderly and other computer illiterates get connected, it often has a much gentler learning curve.The main hurdle then would be to find the cheap hardware with decent compatibility (perhaps a cheap 2 in 1).

Also, you should consider approaching canonical about sponsorship. Considering their relationship with amazon there has to be some funding to be found there.

Got it! Will definitely consider Ubuntu and approach Canonical. Thanks a lot!

Yeah but I'm wondering why Google is giving out ChromeOS at (presumably) no cost to hardware vendors. That means they must make their money from the customer somehow through e.g. extensive tracking.

Sure, that's why one of the options we consider might be Ubuntu. Chromebooks were fast and cheap solutions to start with.

Alright, that makes sense!