What if I am using a ChromebookOS

I have a chromebookOS Mac I believe and im not sure if I am using a macOS?

Posted on Aug 9, 2023 8:56 PM

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Posted on Aug 9, 2023 10:41 PM

ChromeBooks are not Macs. They do not use macOS, Windows, or regular distributions of Linux.


Instead, they use an operating system called ChromeOS, which is based in part on Linux and Android. They come with applications from Google, such as Chrome for the Web browser, a Google word processor, etc.

3 replies

Aug 10, 2023 8:48 AM in response to macie28

If a laptop/notebook has Google Chrome's logo on its frame, it is a ChromeBook.


If you see the Apple logo has a peal on sticky, it is not an Apple computer. Apple's logo is clearly a white plastic that shines the light through and is embeded in the aluminum/titanium/plastic case. People have been known to put Apple stickies on the back of their computers to fool people into thinking they have a Mac, or just because they like it.


Chrome OS is available through virtualization tools like VMware, Bluestacks, Virtualbox, Parallels to run side by side with Mac OS. But that does not make the Mac a Chromebook. If the laptop has Apple's logo on the keyboard, or a cloverleaf icon with with the word command on the keyboard, it might be an Apple with a virtualization tool running Chrome OS. If you hover the cursor over the screen cornersor see the F4 key has 6 white squares and are able to either FN-F4 or just F4 activate Mission control and see other Mac windows open, or hit command-tab and see Mac applications you can switch to which bring up the Apple logo menu in upper left with the application name, then you have a Mac with virtualization. If you only see the Chrome icon no matter what you do, it is more likely you have a Chromebook, and someone has just misidentified it as MacOS.

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What if I am using a ChromebookOS

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