Hi, I’m currently on a MacBook Air M2 8/256 and I’m running out of disk space. System is too large. I love macOS but I’d love to try out something new, such as Fedora and maybe switch to Fedora long-term.
I want to buy any computer (specs don’t matter) as long as it can smoothly run Brave Browser (10 to 20 tabs), VS Code, Terminal, Discord all in parallel on Fedora (preferred) or Ubuntu. The only requirement is that it’s cheap, can be refurbished. I have no preference for arm64 or amd64
Budget: 150$.
If this is out of scope, please disregard my request
update: a friend offered me his MacBook for a really good price
So you say a computer but what do you mean?
Do you mean a laptop? If so, I’d go on ebay a second hand laptop; the more powerful the better but be aware you won’t get much power for $150.
Do you mean a PC? As in you have a display (including a TV), and a keyboard and mouse? If so get a 2nd hand mini PC. There seem to be a lot available on Ebay that are within $150 and decent enough spec (8gb Ram, multicore processor albeit older ones); you will in theory get more bang for your buck for power as you’re not paying for a screen and peripherals. Reality can be a bit more random between PCs and laptops.
Or you could get a SBC (Single Board Computer) like a raspberry pi 5 and case, or Orange Pi 4 and case. Storage would be an issue so you’d have to also get an SD card or budget for an external drive if you want better performance. This may be a decent route to go, as it’s a fun project and can be reused for something else (like a home lab/server set up) if you decide you want to buy a more expensive laptop once you’ve tried Linux.
Any of these option, you will be able to run Linux including Fedora. But bare in mind that if you get a lower spec device like an SBC you may need to use a low powered desktop environment like XFCE or LXQT - this will run fine but won’t be as slick as MacOS seems. That said, I had KDE Plasma running fine on my Raspberry Pi 5. While a second hand laptop or mini PC with enough RAM and a decent enough CPU should be fine with KDE or Gnome.
Whatever happens, don’t expect as slick an experience as a Mac book when only spending $150 on hardware. That said, it should be decent enough to get a feel for linux.
I’m thinking about different scenarios right now. I could get a Raspberry Pi 5 and use it, and if I decide to switch back to macOS I could still use it as a device with GPIO pins for other stuff or for docker containers. Otherwise, a Mini PC could be potentially more powerful but then a laptop would be handy if I just want a device that I can carry into the backyard and use it there, so my MacBook could be stationary. It’s a hard choice to be honest :D