Chromebook For Dummies

Introduction

Currently, laptops are on the decline. This is largely due to the penetration of smartphones and tablets in the consumer market. Technology is getting smaller, faster, and more portable, so the world’s dependence on full-featured computers with fixed connections has begun to decrease.

However, in this declining market, the rising star is the Chromebook — a kind of low-cost portable computer powered by Google’s Chrome OS, an operating system inspired by and designed around the Chrome web browser. The Chromebook is designed to rely heavily on the Internet for the bulk of its functionality. Instead of a hard drive, then, Chromebook relies on cloud-based storage. And instead of resident applications, Chromebook uses web-based applications that are accessed and bookmarked through the Google Play store.

By offloading the bulk of the functionality to the omnipresent cloud, Google made it possible for hardware manufacturers to create computers with hardware configurations specifically optimized for life on the web. The result is an accessible, user-friendly computer with a low price point, making it a great option for schools, students, companies, and budget-conscious people in need of computing power.

About This Book

Sometimes the greatest hurdle in picking up a new technology is the fear that you won’t be able to learn it fast enough for it to be useful to you. The good news is that this book is designed to alleviate the fear involved with using a Chromebook by removing ...