I'm typing this message from a 16-year-old ThinkPad T410 running Linux flawlessly. cost 60CAD. any ThinkPad will run Linux like a dream, and the newer ones are like, $200-600 second-hand, depending on how fancy you want it to be.
that still pertains to usercase. if a user has a thinkpad the whole shebang is gonna work ootb. if you cant research 'is my laptop compatible with [os]', stick to iphones.
because my old-ass grandparents like to call me. what do you want me to do, get them to use telegram? my grandfather doesnt even know how to type. at all.
i usually leave mine going until i have to unplug my drive (my media pc is a busted old laptop that cant be unplugged, if im travelling i take my drive with me). that means theyre usually going for a month or two
i think it heavily depends on the person's use case. if someone is doing web browsing and maybe making a couple word documents, the learning curve is negligible. also, you dont need to use BASH to do most things, it's 2026. most anything you can think of, you can do via GUI.
also- you can definitely make and send documents with linux, no problem. more popular distros (ubuntu, mint, fedora (which i recommend, but im biased)) are as intuitive and point-and-click for surface level use as Windows is, and most come pre-installed with an office suite.
your level of technical knowledge is so far beyond the average person's that it's insane. the idea of 'my computer has a problem, i'm going to google what the popup says' simply does not occur to so, so many people.
I've been a ThinkPad user for about 4 years now, got a second-hand T470s running Fedora. It's been an amazing experience! I'm not one for brand loyalty, but (so long as Lenovo doesn't fuck them up) ThinkPads will always be my first choice for a laptop.
the right are statistically far less educated than the left. that makes them easier to control and manipulate into supporting causes that directly or indirectly harm them.
