I had a friend who had a very old mac laptop and the battery was dead and it would only work when it was plugged in. I wasn’t using my Fedora Think pad laptop since I had clients who needed more intensive Windows/Mac things so I gave it to them.
They had only used Mac/Windows so I was concerned that it would be difficult for them to use. I showed them how to bring up the bottom row and I had been using it so Brave browser was installed which they also use.
I asked a few weeks later how they were getting along with it and they said that it was great. They loved the battery life, how quiet it was and even said it was beautiful. I agree, it is beautiful. Nobara and Mint Linux are also beautiful but in different ways.
They use the Microsoft 365 apps online each day and have had no problems just like I did. It was very smooth sailing. In fact it worked better than it did on Mac/Windows which is kind of funny when you think about it.
Why am I sharing this? With the right OS and hardware, given to the right person Linux is a compelling tool. They said that they didn’t bring the power brick with them because it was just a short meeting, and was surprised how after connecting to the HDMI projector it was still 70% charged. They brought the charger when they were working all day.
They have been able to use the most popular programs they need to do for their job, and so far things are going well. The Thinkpad is about 3 years old, which is still 3 years newer than their older Mac laptop. I liked using the laptop too when I had it, but I got better computers so I just found a new home for it.
It makes me feel good when we don’t have to throw everything away. I think we are too quick to trash things that still have value and are still useful to someone.