Reading on my e-reader (e-ink) or print books. Short periods - eg waiting for a kid to do something - are good for poetry. Meditating. Listening to music. Listening to podcasts. Sometimes I’ve taken out some paper and doodled while listening to something - which is really gratifying (even though I’m no Picasso). I also cook, which is wonderful. Or I go for a long walk. I’m also actively trying to fill my time with offline human engagement - volunteering twice a week and participating in a men’s group (a safe space for men to share their experiences).

I agree. It’s not constructive to call non-techies “dumb.” Nor is it helpful to demand they”just” spend 30 min searching for solutions online. If you love tech, this is worthwhile - if you’re, say, a rights activist you’d rather spend that time reading an important report or meeting with people to advance your work; if you’re a retiree with limited means, then it might be overwhelming to “just go online”; and if you’re a musician working on an album, why should you need to spend time on tech when you could be spending that time mixing? I see examples of Linux becoming pretty user friendly compared to days of yore (eg Mint, Ubuntu), but has that improvement somehow compromised the techie side of Linux?

I don’t see them as mutually exclusive - can’t Linux be user friendly for the non-techie while also offering a techie lots of flexibility and command-line joy? 🤷‍♂️

I like the prices! And europaweit lieferung - that works for me. :)

Thanks! :)

Thanks - I’ll check it out!

Aspire 15

Looks nice - and nice price too!

Thanks for the tip - I'll check out the AMD Acer laptops. You thinking of Nitros, in particular?

Looks like a nice selection. A sensible approach, and one I may end up taking: getting a Windows laptop for good value and then installing Linux myself.

Good points all round, thanks - and I did think the Linux installation cost seemed high. I might be willing to pay a premium for good support. I've heard good things about System76's customer service (but they're US-based). Installing a distro on an old laptop doesn't scare me - I've done it before. It's more the hardware/driver issues that might arise. And then I'd love to discover an "out of the box" solution that I could recommend to my friends and family, who have little appetite for tech tinkering. Maybe that's where Tuxedo comes into the picture...

Can't seem to find refurbs on their website - and judging from the original announcement, they may only be available in the US and Canada (I'm in the EU).

These do look nice 🤩 Thanks!