first a chrome book works much better when tied to a google account you actually use.
A google account includes a lot of things many are not aware of including email calendar contacts and online storage among others.
To truly make use of a chrome book you need to leverage those services.
You can connect the mail app to other accounts and view your mail but it all works so much more seamlessly when you stick to google.
When you first start a chrome book on the bottom task bar you should have Icons for each of these services. I think the hardest for most people to get their head around is the online storage or Drive. Basically drive functions pretty similar to normal computer storage it just lives mostly in the cloud and the interface is a little different.
The newer chrome books also will work with apps from the google play store so in a sense they will also run software but only play store enabled apps. you can not install third party software from outside sources. that said the play store is pretty full featured at this point and you should be able to find an app for just about anything assuming the Chromebook you just bought supports the play store.
If it doesn't then things become much more limited. Yet still fully functional if your usage of the machine is limited to web browsing email file storage and document or other office type uses.
does your new Chromebook support the play store? do you know if not do you know the model I can look it up and tell you.
They do have a bit of a learning curve to be sure but they can be reset in under 5 minutes if there is a problem and all of your stuff comes right back with a fresh clean install. it will probably be a bit painful at first but if you stick with it you will likely grow to love it.
I am a pc guy I build em fix em and live on them nearly 24/7 but I love my chrome book above everything else when working from the couch. i bought my first one to demo for a client that was thinking of getting one and fell in love with it.
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