Chromebooks, running ChromeOS, are designed by default to use the wide range of quality software available from Google. The operating system assumes you will read your e-mail from gmail, write your documents in Google Docs, store your contact list and calendar in your Google account. It will also record what apps you have installed and, where appropriate, your licenses for them.

Some situations require that sensitive information not be automatically stored on Google's, and this article is for those. We will set up a Chromebook to use NextCloud (https://nextcloud.com/) for:

• Online document storage and editing
• Contact storage and synchronization
• Calendar storage and synchronization
• Other functions such as secure password storage, notes and chat

We will also disable the Google App Store and set up F-Droid (https://f-droid.org/) as an alternative. Note this separate step requires decreasing the security of ChromeOS and should not be done in cases where this is a concern.

This is a work in progress. Return here in a few days when I hope to have the article finished Rod, 2021-12-18