What can a laptop do that a chrome book can’t do?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I’ve read articles that compare the two, but I’m still somewhat confused. Can someone give me specific examples? For example, excel run on both. What can you do in excel on a laptop that you can’t do on a chrome book? What programs only run on laptops but not chrome books?

[Anonymous]

In general, Chromebooks can only run programs that run in an internet browser

They can't install stand alone programs usually

[Anonymous]

Or can run programs made for Android / Chromebooks

But most software is meant for windows / macs

[Anonymous]

I know, it’s confusing. A Chromebook is basically a web browsing machine. There is no desktop or folders—it’s ONLY a Chrome web browser. As long as you only use Google sheets and Google pages, it’s fine. But you can’t save files on it, you save them to your Google drive. You can’t run Word. It’s great for what it is, and it doesn’t get glitchy like a laptop. Kids can’t really screw it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know, it’s confusing. A Chromebook is basically a web browsing machine. There is no desktop or folders—it’s ONLY a Chrome web browser. As long as you only use Google sheets and Google pages, it’s fine. But you can’t save files on it, you save them to your Google drive. You can’t run Word. It’s great for what it is, and it doesn’t get glitchy like a laptop. Kids can’t really screw it up.

+1 If you need to be able to send a letter as a Word doc then a Chromebook is not for you. If you want to be able to save documents and access them without using the internet, then a Chromebook is not for you. There is a wider level of functionality in Excel that doesn't exist in the Google version of Excel online. In general a laptop will be a better fit for an adult than a Chromebook imo. The downside of a laptop is that you will need to purchase an Office software package in order to be able to use the laptop for office types of uses like Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

I have a work laptop and a work Chromebook. 999 times out of 1000 I will use the laptop before the Chromebook.

[Anonymous]

Facetime. I need it for my daughter's instrument lessons. Apparently the Factime audio works better than Zoom's or the other programs'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know, it’s confusing. A Chromebook is basically a web browsing machine. There is no desktop or folders—it’s ONLY a Chrome web browser. As long as you only use Google sheets and Google pages, it’s fine. But you can’t save files on it, you save them to your Google drive. You can’t run Word. It’s great for what it is, and it doesn’t get glitchy like a laptop. Kids can’t really screw it up.

+1 If you need to be able to send a letter as a Word doc then a Chromebook is not for you. If you want to be able to save documents and access them without using the internet, then a Chromebook is not for you. There is a wider level of functionality in Excel that doesn't exist in the Google version of Excel online. In general a laptop will be a better fit for an adult than a Chromebook imo. The downside of a laptop is that you will need to purchase an Office software package in order to be able to use the laptop for office types of uses like Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

I have a work laptop and a work Chromebook. 999 times out of 1000 I will use the laptop before the Chromebook.

It's cumbersome but can't you write something in google docs and save it as a word file? Or better yet, a pdf?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know, it’s confusing. A Chromebook is basically a web browsing machine. There is no desktop or folders—it’s ONLY a Chrome web browser. As long as you only use Google sheets and Google pages, it’s fine. But you can’t save files on it, you save them to your Google drive. You can’t run Word. It’s great for what it is, and it doesn’t get glitchy like a laptop. Kids can’t really screw it up.

+1 If you need to be able to send a letter as a Word doc then a Chromebook is not for you. If you want to be able to save documents and access them without using the internet, then a Chromebook is not for you. There is a wider level of functionality in Excel that doesn't exist in the Google version of Excel online. In general a laptop will be a better fit for an adult than a Chromebook imo. The downside of a laptop is that you will need to purchase an Office software package in order to be able to use the laptop for office types of uses like Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

I have a work laptop and a work Chromebook. 999 times out of 1000 I will use the laptop before the Chromebook.

It's cumbersome but can't you write something in google docs and save it as a word file? Or better yet, a pdf?

You definitely could. I don't do it because I need the Excel functionality but your suggestion would work. In my case the cost for a laptop is completely worth it. I would have the same answer (laptop) for a kid in high school or college who needs to write term papers, manage research or manipulate data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1 If you need to be able to send a letter as a Word doc then a Chromebook is not for you. If you want to be able to save documents and access them without using the internet, then a Chromebook is not for you. There is a wider level of functionality in Excel that doesn't exist in the Google version of Excel online. In general a laptop will be a better fit for an adult than a Chromebook imo. The downside of a laptop is that you will need to purchase an Office software package in order to be able to use the laptop for office types of uses like Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

I have a work laptop and a work Chromebook. 999 times out of 1000 I will use the laptop before the Chromebook.

That's just not true anymore. First, I love Google Docs which can read and write Word docs. They have allow you to edit Word docs now. Microsoft Office has an Android Office app that works on most Chromebooks from the last few years. The Chromebook is more secure, easier to manage, and now supported for 6+ years. If you need gaming, video editing, then you likely are better with a Windows laptop but otherwise a Chrome OS laptop handles most things just fine (I have a few in my family)

[Anonymous]

If you have basic needs, it's fine. For example, you can do a regular Word document, but if you need to use macros, do a mail merge, or do track changes, the web version on chromebook may not work for you. Same with Excel -- you're not going to get the Solver or advanced functions in the web version.

I'd say for 90% of home users, and maybe 50% of business users, a chromebook has all they need. A lot of companies use specialized programs for their business that need to be installed and won't work on a Chromebook.

I know next time my elderly parents need a computer, it'll be a chromebook -- less tech support for me to do!

[Anonymous]

Essentially, you can't install anything on a Chromebook that is not configured to run with a Chromebook. I would never buy one. Spend an extra $100 and get a low level "real" laptop.

[Anonymous]

In addition to everything above, be aware that Google Drive is not completely secure. Cloud storage is actually physical storage on Google servers. That storage is open to the Internet. It is encrypted in transmission between your computer and Google, but the data is transmitted back and forth. In addition, it is more vulnerable. If anyone breaks into your Google account, they can access anything on your drive.

If you have any information that should be secure, such as personal information, information pertaining to your identity (address, phone, SSN, financial information, etc), you want to be careful about storing such information on the cloud. When on a laptop, the information is stored on the local drive and someone would need to be able to break into your computer or get physical access to your computer to read that.

Additionally as pointed out above, chromebooks can only run apps that are designed for chromebooks or the web. There are some and more being created, but the number of applications that are designed for computers (whether Windows or Mac) is far larger than those designed for Chromebooks. Anything designed for Chromebooks can be run on laptops, but not vice versa. Chromebooks can run less than 5% of the software that is available for laptops. Fancy games, custom software, analytical software, financial software, custom graphics packages, desktop publishing design tools are just a small subset of the wide variety of categories where there may be a few basic tools available to chromebooks, but there are far more including the more advanced versions that are available for laptops. And many of those will not be available for chromebooks because you need either local storage space or local computing power that chromebooks will not have access to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Essentially, you can't install anything on a Chromebook that is not configured to run with a Chromebook. I would never buy one. Spend an extra $100 and get a low level "real" laptop.

I used to think like you. Now, I see the advantage of having both. I have laptops for me, and Chromebooks for the kids. My kids are in ES and need access for the remote learning. The Chromebooks are much better for them because they are much simpler. They turn them on and can log into their school accounts and go. No starting up browsers and don't have other things on the laptop that they don't need, don't know how to use and might stumble across.

When they get older, they may have need for a laptop, but these are much better for them for now. And much cheaper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In addition to everything above, be aware that Google Drive is not completely secure. Cloud storage is actually physical storage on Google servers. That storage is open to the Internet. It is encrypted in transmission between your computer and Google, but the data is transmitted back and forth. In addition, it is more vulnerable. If anyone breaks into your Google account, they can access anything on your drive.

If you have any information that should be secure, such as personal information, information pertaining to your identity (address, phone, SSN, financial information, etc), you want to be careful about storing such information on the cloud. When on a laptop, the information is stored on the local drive and someone would need to be able to break into your computer or get physical access to your computer to read that.

Additionally as pointed out above, chromebooks can only run apps that are designed for chromebooks or the web. There are some and more being created, but the number of applications that are designed for computers (whether Windows or Mac) is far larger than those designed for Chromebooks. Anything designed for Chromebooks can be run on laptops, but not vice versa. Chromebooks can run less than 5% of the software that is available for laptops. Fancy games, custom software, analytical software, financial software, custom graphics packages, desktop publishing design tools are just a small subset of the wide variety of categories where there may be a few basic tools available to chromebooks, but there are far more including the more advanced versions that are available for laptops. And many of those will not be available for chromebooks because you need either local storage space or local computing power that chromebooks will not have access to.

A few things here:

1. Chromebooks do have local storage space -- it's where files go when you click download. Also you can plug a USB key into them. But generally it'll default to using Google Drive of course.
2. Google probably does a better job of security on their servers than the average person does on their laptop. But, let's pretend all the data was sitting there for anyone to see. They'd have to find _your_ data among 1 billion user accounts and all kinds of junk.
3. Most people don't run analytical software, custom graphics, etc etc in a home environment.

[Anonymous]

I got my kids laptops because I sometimes cut the internet if I want them to focus on writing a paper or editing a paper, or reading a book that they have downloaded onto the computer for school, or doing other things that don't require them to be online. Their productivity went way up.