Tell me about Chromebooks and their OS (Page 1/2)
maryjane NOV 21, 08:42 AM
Wife needed a new laptop and she bought a Chromebook. I don't know which model or anything about them but I do know it doesn't use windows, which is what she is used to. How sharp and tall is the learning curve on it going to be?
Are there any MS programs that will run on a chromebook..such as Excel?
Know anything about Clickup?
williegoat NOV 21, 09:21 AM
I have never played around with ChromeOS, but it is simply Linux under the hood. So, in the end anything is possible.

You can install any of several different FOS (free and open source) office suites. I use LibreOffice which is fully compatible with MSoffice. You can open, edit or create anything that you can with Word, Excel, etc.

It should be easy for anyone to navigate, and with a little ingenuity it could be made to jump through hoops.

[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 11-21-2023).]

maryjane NOV 21, 09:55 AM
Thanks willie. That's how I understood it but I'm in the dark about it myself and and I won't be able to help her much.
TheDigitalAlchemist NOV 21, 10:08 AM
She will have a similiar experience with most web-based things. Just explore how she wants to to SAVE documents.
or if she saves stuff in the cloud, its even easier.

You can google stuff like "how to save files locally on a chromebook", because a zillion students have used them for years, the answers are readily available...
maryjane NOV 21, 10:44 AM
Well, I do have a new 1TB WD (Western Digital) My Passport external hd still in the box but it states it's compatible with w 7, w8, w10 but also says "may need reformatting for other operating systems' so I don't know if it will work for her or not.
williegoat NOV 21, 11:50 AM

quote
Originally posted by maryjane:

Well, I do have a new 1TB WD (Western Digital) My Passport external hd still in the box but it states it's compatible with w 7, w8, w10 but also says "may need reformatting for other operating systems' so I don't know if it will work for her or not.


It looks like ChromeOS should be able to read and write to common Windows filesystems (NTFS, FAT, etc.) so it should have no problem. That is one of the nice things about the Linux kernel, the penguin don't care.
maryjane NOV 21, 12:05 PM
Maybe the new Chromebooks can, but the old penguin had trouble from what I've read. Looks, like you have to connect the ext drive, let Chrome find it, then I/she may have to format it to change to non-fats.

Scroll down where it says format.

https://www.lifewire.com/ho...ternal-drive-4782622
williegoat NOV 21, 12:53 PM
I still think it will work without needing to be reformatted. If you have a thumbdrive handy, try it in the Chromebook. The thumbdrive and your WD external drive are likely formatted in some flavor of FAT (fat32, exfat, etc.). The ability to read the various filesystems should already be compiled into the kernel of the Chromebook.

In the distant past, you had to add filesystem compatibility to the kernel, but that was back around the time of horsedrawn abaci.

[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 11-21-2023).]

theogre NOV 21, 07:16 PM
You can't install nearly anything from Windows to Chromebook.
Depending on product you may not easily install Linux software because many are "locked down" like nearly all Smart Phone.

Most external storage will work but not all.
NTFS & newer exFAT format devices may have problems.
Note: Many things that run on Linux will access SD Cards but only on the slow speed method (via SPI) as many products don't has License from SDcard.org to use fast speed method using all "pins" on them.

Even if whatever "drive" works... files from any Office programs may not format right or fail outright when used in Chrome Clones like Google Docs, LibreOffice & others.

Even LibreOffice etc in Windows has problems working w/ MS Office Files DOC DOCX etc. Worse if the files are heavily formatted, has formulas, or files that link to other files typical in Excel & Access DB but Word allows this too.

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave

maryjane NOV 22, 10:20 AM
Well, she's learning on it albeit slowly. It can only use mini sd cards and it didn't recognize the thumb drive she had but not sure she looked in the right place in 'files'. I did tho, download the full instruction PDF manual onto it for her. All 78 pages but some of it is 'safety' and 'page intentionally left blank'.
I haven't tried the external HD yet.

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 11-22-2023).]