THE DEVICEDEX

because you can't do any work online without a good device!

DEVICE RECOMMENDATIONS

Windows Ultralight  Budget Laptops

Asus BR1100 series: Designed for students and very rugged for its price, designed to be semi-modular and repairable, passable specs and very reliable for a budget ultralight, very snappy for bootup and basic tasks with 4 or 8 GB of RAM, available with Win 10 Pro, and about as small as a Windows laptop can get without becoming unusable

Older Windows Mid-Range Laptops With Good Reputations

(in general try to find models with SSDs for good speed)

* Acer has a generally good reputation for their budget lines and operates their own refurb store for deals on older models (also has their Chromebooks and desktops)

* Dell Latitude: Many older models with decent hardware for under $300

* HP Elitebook: Comparable to Dell Latitude but a little nicer hardware, many good older models available in the $250 to $400 range

* Walmart sometimes has good deals on refurbed Gateways with good specs ($100-200) through their website, and may have good Black Friday deals

* Older Lenovo Thinkpads are known for their durability and good specs, the Thinkpad T480 is still particularly popular for a cheaper older laptop

Older Macintosh Options

(in general avoid the older Intel models due to baked-in hardware and speed issues)

* The Walmart website often has older refurbished Macbook Airs with decent specs in the $200-400 range (also available from other sources at times)

Modular / DIY Laptops

* Framework (cost about $600 retail, some people have used the parts to build their own custom portables)

Microcomputers

Offer ultraportability with better specs than budget laptops in the same price range, but keep in mind you'll have to provide your own screen and keyboard, and possibly your own OS

* GMKTech Mini - about $150-250 for the lowest-priced options with 12 to 16 GB RAM

Android Phones

If you want multiple Android phones for online work purposes, generally it's best to buy cheap new budget ones than refurbs. Refurbs even two or so years old are likely to perform worse than a new budget phone if they were rode hard in their former life. You do run into the problem of some new models now not operating unless you purchase one of their phone plans, however, so shop carefully if you just want to use it on Wifi. 

DEVICE TIPS

What to Do About Windows 10 End of Life (Without Going to Windows 11)

* Buy a key for Windows 10 LTSC, which gets security updates until at least 2027. It will require a full reinstall of Windows on your computer. Keys are sold secondhand (not available individually from Microsoft) and go as low as $10 USD. This version does not come with the MS Store, but if you really need that run "wsreset -i" from the command prompt once installed.

* Another legal but outside-the-box option is to get one of the Win 10-era versions of Winserver (2016, 2019 or ideally 2022). This is the Windows version for server management, it has some difference but is stripped of a lot of bloat and fundamentally works the same way with the same interface. These are getting updates until 2033 at least. The smallest edition retails for $500 but there are secondhand market ways out there to get a legitimate single working key for more like $50. 

Linux Tips

* If you have a Chromebook, you can start experimenting with Linux software via containers, this link is a good starting point

* There are some very small Linux distros that can be run inside Windows to begin learning, for example Alpine Linux  

* Popular simple Linux installations for beginners:

- Linux Mint (XFCE Edition for older computers with weak hardware, Cinnamon for more modern & fast computers)

- Manjaro Linux is much like Cinnamon, a little more resource-heavy but very robust and focused on ease of use. One of its main selling points is as an easier entry to the Arch Linux world which is preferred by power users who want maximum control over what they install and how things work

- Nobara is a distro meant to be beginner-friendly but also tailored to the needs of gamers, streamers and content creators (lots of pre-installed codecs, drivers and software commonly used)

- Cachy OS is meant to be super lightweight and fast for older computers, and to install easily with a lot of auto-configuration even for older hardware, though once installed it is not necessarily as beginner-friendly in terms of interface and getting new software working

* There are some centralized distribution "app stores" for Linux that are multi-distro and make life much easier for finding and installing new software (via the software manager). Popular and trusted ones include Flathub for starting out, and Repology for a "higher level" view of the whole landscape

* You can run general Windows software with Wine and many PC games with Valve's Proton 

*  One of the main things about learning Linux is the command line. If you're old enough to have used MS-DOS, it's not too different, just a different set of commands to learn. It might help to print out a physical cheat sheet to keep nearby. There are also tons of tutorials on Youtube that go a little more in-depth. Here's a 15 minute one explaining Linux directories tailored to people used to using Windows. 

* One of the things LLMs are currently very good for is helping with Linux questions. It can really help to have one on hand on a phone or other device to ask questions as you go. 

Windows Emergency Assistance

* To enter Safe Mode, hold Shift during login screen or full boot or press F8 or F11 during boot

* To enter Advanced Recovery Mode, power off and on three times (interrupting the boot process each time by holding power button for forced shutdown)

* For "blue screen of death" crashes (0XC000021A stop code), try "sfc /scannow" at the Safe Mode command prompt to attempt to fix corrupt boot files, then system restore to the most recent point

* Additional tips for a vital process crash can be found here  

* Try the free Bleeping Computer Windows Repair Tool, which can often fix smaller issues relatively easily

* If all else fails, consider Neosmart EasyRE,  a well-regarded piece of commercial recovery software used by repair professionals that costs about $40 to $60 depending on your version of Windows