I used to use linux for everything but unfortunately had to move to the dark side because I needed to run apps that would only run on Windows. Things have moved on and I am researching ChromeOS as a way of doing the non-Windows stuff.
There appear to be several different ways to run linux apps on ChromeOS, Crostini, Crouton or dual boot. It would be nice not to have to dual boot, but from what I have read not all linux apps will run on ChromeOS. I would love to get lilypond working but found that it was always difficult to install directly to linux becuase of dependency issues (though I haven't used it for several years). I understand that MuseScore2 runs OK on ChromeOS.
If I make a purchase it will be a decent spec machine but it would be useful to get views of existing users on the best way to approach this.
Thanks in advance.

The newer Chromebooks can't run Linux: https://wiki.mrchromebox.tech/Supported_Devices

Lilypond and the other FOSS engravers should work quite well if you install them using your distro's official package manager. Which distro is this for?

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Thank you. A very helpful link.

I have installed lilypond on various distros over the years but haven't used it in recent years because of the problems it causes. There are always a couple of libraries that cause issues when it comes to upgrading the distro. I currently have an old LTS Ubuntu that I cannot upgrade because of this. I installed MuseScore instead to get a few jobs done.

I quite like the idea of a Chromebook for basic internet type things and to install a few android apps on. If I can then run MuseScore (or/and lilypond) and Raw Therapee from ChromeOS that would cover my needs. I am not sure that I understand the nuance between Crostini and Crouton as far as compatibility issues are concerned.

I notice that there is an enterprise version of Parallels that runs on Chrome but the website suggests that it is purely enterprise. There are no contact details to enquire about a sole user license! I could ditch the Windows laptop altogether if that worked and install a decent linux distro on it :-)

MuseScore and Raw Therapee run quite well on Linux Mint, for example. MuseScore2 2.3.2 is available in the repository. I tried it recently and it seemed to work very well for typesetting (engraving?) an old piece which was badly scanned. Though the caveat there is that I'm not any kind of expert, musician, composer, or musicologist.

If you really need to keep a legacy system around, because one or two applications don't run in Wine properly, you can probably put Vista (aka Windows) inside a Virtual Machine like VirtualBox or Qemu. The big advantage there is that you can use snapshots to always start with known-good installation so that when, not if, it curdles you can just roll back to the start of the snapshot.

Or another option would be to look at the second-hand and refurbished market. Due to the surplus of systems relative to demand, you can get quite good computers that way for an old song. So that might be a cheaper and better option than trying a Chromebook.

I bought a Chromebook, didn't get on with the original Chrome O/S, so changed it to boot Linux, (via mrchromebox software), it's much better now, as I can install what I want, not just what was on offer for ChromeOS.

However, I would also suggest getting a pre used laptop instead.