Looking for a Chromebook? You Can Now Run Top Applications on Them

Are you looking to buy a Chromebook this holiday season? A lot of holiday shoppers are, as Google's Chrome OS has moved from a slightly questionable cloud-centric platform to one that can be taken seriously. As a matter of fact, Chromebooks were among the top sellers among low-cost portables last holiday season, and they're also finding a lot of traction in the education market.

Here are a few developments and trends on the Chromebook scene that you should take note of.

Applications have arrived. When it comes to some applications, you may have thought you'd never see them arrive for Chrome OS. Photoshop--an application you may have thought would never run on cloud-focused Chrome OS--is now available for Chromebooks. Google and Adobe have announced that Adobe's entire Creative Cloud software suite, including Photoshop, will soon be available for Chromebooks.

Meanwhile, VLC Media Player is now available for Chromebooks. This application is famous for handling nearly any kind of video file format for playback; you can use it as a video transcoder for converting video file formats; and you can listen to and manage podcasts with it. Users can download it now from the Chrome Web Store.

Selection has expanded. As always, the current crop of Chromebooks includes many low cost options. Android Headlines has a good roundup of some of the top choices, including the Asus Flip and Google's high-end Pixel Chromebook.

If you haven't looked into Chromebooks, or if you previously wrote them off due to the immaturity of Chrome OS, look again. Many holiday gift receivers would be happy to get a Chromebook, and they are much more flexible now than before. And, Google is even offering incentives with Chromebooks, including, in many cases, free storage in the cloud and other perks.