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- Install a non-Chrome Linux OS on your existing Chromebook laptop.
- Know that "tricking" your laptop to accept a non-ChromeOS may be tricky.
- Choose an OS which has the drivers you need, obviously.
- Install Windows (v10, presumably) on your existing Chromebook laptop.
- Know that "tricking" your laptop to accept a non-ChromeOS may be tricky.
- Good news: As a researcher, most grad students can at least obtain Windows for free via Chemistry's "premium" subscription to Microsoft Imagine's service.
- Invest in a new laptop which has Windows installed.
- Cheap laptops cost $200-250, same as the ChromeOS you bought. Here's a $211 example from 1/6/17: <https://www.cdw.com/shop/products/ASUS-Vivobook-E200HA-US01-11.6in-Atom-x5-Z8300-2-GB-RAM-32-GB-SSD/4071911.aspx>. If you expect to use it primarily for browsing and using cloud services, should "perform" as well as your current cloud-dependent laptop. It would nominally be able to run ChemDraw and MS Office apps, for what that's worth on a low-powered system.
- Within your ChromeOS, "print" to PDF and get that file that to a computer which can print to your group's printer.
- Workflow idea: Set up a folder in Google drive to store files you want to print. "Print" that that folder. From a computer you can print from, actually print the files you put in that folder, and delete the files.
- Alternative workflow: Copy PDF (or whatever) file to a USB thumbdrive on your Chromebook and then "sneakernet" that USB drive to a computer you can print from.
Information and considerations
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