hey guys I'm bill from gcflearnfree.org
and today we're going to be taking a
look at Chromebooks now you might have
heard of a Chromebook before you might
not but either way if you're thinking
about buying a new computer a Chromebook
might be a really good low-cost
alternative to a traditional laptop now
unlike normal computers which use the
Windows or Mac operating system a
Chromebook uses Chrome OS which is based
on the Google Chrome web browser that
means you can use a Chromebook to do
just about everything you do in a normal
web browser like checking your email
Facebook watching video is creating
simple documents and a whole lot more
this is actually a Chromebook right
behind me it has a screen keyboard and
touchpad just like the regular laptop
it's pretty thin it's pretty light it's
got most of your basic ports like
headphones HDMI USB USB again over here
that might vary based on which
Chromebook model you buy but more about
that later let's take a look at the
basics of using the Chromebook interface
this is the Chromebook desktop and it
might look pretty familiar to the
desktop of a regular Windows or Mac
computer if you've ever used one before
if you click this button in the lower
left corner you can open any app on your
Chromebook for example if you wanted to
create a new document you could just
click here whenever you open an
application on a Chromebook it will
appear in a new browser tab for example
if we wanted to look at Google Maps
you'll see that it's opening a new tab
here so we have two tabs one for our
maps and one for our Docs you can also
use a Chromebook just like a regular web
browser create a new tab and use it to
go to any web page you want if you want
to install new software on your
Chromebook just go to the Chrome Web
Store now it's important to note that
you won't find traditional PC software
here such as Microsoft Office or Adobe
Photoshop because a Chromebook runs
Chrome OS you can't install traditional
software that you might already own
still there are a lot of great
applications here and many of them are
free okay so those are just the absolute
basics of using a Chromebook but I hope
this video has been helpful in showing
you what a Chromebook can and can't do
if you're thinking about buying a
Chromebook I didn't bite you just to
take some time and think about your
needs as a computer user a five or six
hundred dollar
top may actually do much more than you
need and I think for a lot of people
Chromebook would make a really great
alternative on the other hand if you
need access to very specific Windows or
Mac software a Chromebook just might not
cut it for you anyway I hope this video
has been helpful for you and check out
our Chromebooks lesson for even more
information