thelinesoflearning: (Default)
crystal and sweet violin ([personal profile] thelinesoflearning) wrote2013-11-08 02:33 am

Computer help/free Google apps and extensions recs

So, the new computer (which by the way is still unnamed -- it's probably either going to be Beverly Katz or January O'Leary, or some mash-up of the two) is a Chromebook. What we didn't realize was, this means no .exe or otherwise third-party applications.

Which... I did not really use Google apps or extensions for stuff before, so I'm running blind. Computery people, help? I'll take recs for any useful/interesting/helpful ones, but especially if you have ones that can replace any of the following and/or are better at figuring out computer stuff than me and willing to help me find ones, I would really appreciate it (and I will... I don't know, write you something? Edit something for you? Love on you horribly? Whatever I can do?).

*Photoshop
*Audacity
*Sony Vegas. Or even just Windows Movie Maker? Right now I mostly want something that will let me use the webcam to make videos, I can play with vidstuff later.
*Word, although I can use Drive for now
*Calibre
*ITunes? Just... something that will let me put shit on it from my ipod. Preferably that allows me to take the stuff OFF my ipod first.
*...other things, I dunno. throw me useful ones?

Free is better than cheap, cheap is better than absolutely nothing but probably isn't attainable for a while. Thanks in advance.
finch: (Default)

[personal profile] finch 2013-11-08 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Let me know what you turn up? I've been thinking about getting a Chromebook.

I've used Picnik, which I think is PicMonkey now, and had pretty good results, but I don't know how heavily you use photoshop.

What do you dislike about Drive vs Word? I mostly write in either Writer or Evernote in my browser. I don't really love Drive. I think Zoho is a pretty good alternative if you want a full word processor, but I haven't used that in a while either.

I listen to music via Google Music, but I have an Android phone. I'm not sure how easy it is to make Chrome OS talk to an iPod.

I don't really use anything like Audacity or Vegas so I don't have suggestions for those. And I haven't found a good alternative to Calibre - I have my Calibre library backed up to SkyDrive, and I can send things to my Kindle or pull up SkyDrive via the tablet or phone, or even in Chrome, so... I'm not sure I need one except if I really want to turn an .epub into a .mobi or something.