Looking for advice on purchasing a new laptop

[hunter]

5. The computer I use the most is my cheap refurbished Chromebook.

I use it for nearly all my web browsing and much of my writing.

This is my second Chromebook. My first was broken by our large overly enthusiastic dog.

I don't like babysitting expensive laptops, cameras, phones, etc., when I travel. I'm very good at losing things, breaking things, or leaving them out where they'll be stolen. I hated traveling with an expensive Windows laptop.

There's usually a good supply of recent model "refurbished" Chromebooks for less than $150.

One thing that might concern you is the "best before date" which is the date google stops promising updates for a given model.

https://www.theregister.com/2019/08/22/buying_a_chromebook_dont_forget_to_check_when_it_expires/

The machines don't stop working past their expiration date and google has been known to extend these dates for popular machines.

My desktop machine runs Linux. That's the machine I use for editing photos and videos, compiling software, and emulating all my old computers going back to the late 'seventies.

In terms of "evil" I think Apple, Google, and Microsoft are all tied in the race to the bottom. I've built Linux laptops before, but maybe that makes them too "heavy" in the sense that I'd be carrying about 45 years of computer baggage around with me.