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| Tell me about Chromebooks and their OS (Page 2/2) |
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williegoat
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NOV 22, 10:33 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by maryjane:
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.
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If you can tell me the model and/or OS version, I can probably tell you if/how it can access external storage.
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maryjane
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NOV 22, 01:16 PM
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williegoat
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NOV 22, 02:46 PM
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It shouldn't have any problem with a micro SD card, thumb drive or portable hard drive that has been formatted to fat32, which is pretty much standard. When you plug the storage device in, a popup should tell you the machine recognized it.
You might have to enable it in settings > devices. You should then be able to find it in the "files" app.
SD cards and thumb drives are notoriously unreliable, so don't give up before you try several different cards/devices.
There are a number of tutorials on how to install LibreOffice on a Chromebook, but none are straightforward. You might check them out. If they make sense to you, have at it. You are smarter than most and I'll bet your wife is smarter than you. 
More info: That machine should have ChromeOS release version of r91 or higher and a 5 series kernel (5.4 or later). Also, it should be essentially Debian based.
The latest stable kernels are 6 series so that machine should be pretty close. For comparison, I am typing this on a machine with a 6.1 and my fileserver uses a 5.10.[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 11-22-2023).]
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ls3mach
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NOV 22, 04:30 PM
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If you have never used the drive format it and see if it works or fits your needs it certainly won't hurt anything.
I understand you already have it, but I can't suggest enough to return it for a laptop. A used off-lease are great options and will outperform it all day long. ChromeOS has been around a while and still has no 0365 support natively. I wouldn't speculate to whether it will or won't, but it has been a decade. This isn't a new dog old trick. ChromOS is just a dog. My 2pennies.[This message has been edited by ls3mach (edited 11-22-2023).]
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maryjane
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NOV 22, 08:47 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by williegoat:
It shouldn't have any problem with a micro SD card, thumb drive or portable hard drive that has been formatted to fat32, which is pretty much standard. When you plug the storage device in, a popup should tell you the machine recognized it.
You might have to enable it in settings > devices. You should then be able to find it in the "files" app.
SD cards and thumb drives are notoriously unreliable, so don't give up before you try several different cards/devices.
There are a number of tutorials on how to install LibreOffice on a Chromebook, but none are straightforward. You might check them out. If they make sense to you, have at it. You are smarter than most and I'll bet your wife is smarter than you.
More info: That machine should have ChromeOS release version of r91 or higher and a 5 series kernel (5.4 or later). Also, it should be essentially Debian based.
The latest stable kernels are 6 series so that machine should be pretty close. For comparison, I am typing this on a machine with a 6.1 and my fileserver uses a 5.10.
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I do know, that the first thing it did after she connected to the wifi, is downloaded a HUGE update. Hours of updates.
(Truthfully, My wife, is not extremely sharp on computers. Her old laptop still has w7 on it simply because she was afraid to have to learn w10, which isn't all that different from w7 to begin with. Now, it has a dead battery and they are pretty expensive and her old laptop is at least 7 years old. Still in a box from our move. She has 30 days to return it and truthfully, the only reason she picked this one out was the 17" screen. Everything else at BB and Wallyworld had smaller screens except some gaming machines I declined to pay that much for)
I suppose, another alternative, if she can't master chromebook, I could just let her have this one with w10 on it and I try to use the chromebook.[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 11-22-2023).]
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theogre
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NOV 23, 11:50 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by williegoat:
It shouldn't have any problem with a micro SD card, thumb drive or portable hard drive that has been formatted to fat32, which is pretty much standard. |
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Not quite... SD w/ FAT & SDHC w/ FAT32 should work.
SDXC & new SDUC both uses exFAT as OE Format & won't work on many things. May not work even when someone/something tries to reformat in FAT32.
While M$ release exFAT format data, think most still needs License from M$ to use it.
Above links say takes mircoSD but nothing about size limits or formats they support.
And while has "notice" about TM etc for HDMI & some others at the bottom, nothing about sdcard.org make me think doesn't License that part mean can't run exFAT or fast speed data i/o for SD media.
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maryjane
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NOV 27, 09:55 AM
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Update...........
She boxed it up and returned it yesterday after spending a week tryin to learn it...
Got a new non-chromebooks laptop an hour later with w11 on it albeit with a 15.5" screen instead of a 17" inch screen.
Of course, it was $216 more than the Chromebook. I'm bleedin $$ here...... but, Saturday was her birthday...[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 11-27-2023).]
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ls3mach
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DEC 05, 03:05 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by maryjane:
Update...........
She boxed it up and returned it yesterday after spending a week tryin to learn it...
Got a new non-chromebooks laptop an hour later with w11 on it albeit with a 15.5" screen instead of a 17" inch screen.
Of course, it was $216 more than the Chromebook. I'm bleedin $$ here...... but, Saturday was her birthday...
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You'll both be significantly happier. I love a good 17" laptop, but carry a 14" all day at work. I'd love to have the extra 1.4" and 10-key. Happy birthday to her.
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MarkS
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DEC 05, 11:11 AM
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For Chrome books, find an IT person at a local school, those places are typically full of them. I agree going to a Windows LT is much less painful even though they cost more. I'll be doing the same, my wife's birthday is the 21st, her faithful HP from 2012 is getting long in tooth. That one was a great investment although to replace it, it'll cost me way more than it did in 2012.
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williegoat
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DEC 05, 11:19 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by MarkS:
my wife's birthday is the 21st
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That is also Frank Zappa's birthday.
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