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emil-sweden t1_izrnhej wrote

As you are used to macs, that is a safe bet.

But keep in mind that the lifetime might not be limitied by the hardware. You do not want to be using a internet connected device that is not getting security updates. Apples policy is to only fully support the current releases with security updates. You can get a feel for expected lifetime by looking at what devices did not get the latest update this year. https://www.macworld.com/article/782634/macos-ventura-compatibility.html

I have had to help to many relatives with they old useless windows laptops to recommend going that route.

If you really want to go BIFL, linux is your best option. Ubuntu patches security updates for 10years for each release, and all devices (with some rare exceptions) can get the latest releases. There are also options that are more suitable to really old hardware when your pc can not keep up with the latest features.

If you are going to study anything IT/software/computer science it is a perfect fit. For other fields you will have to check that the software you need will be avaliable. But if you mostly want to browse the web and write essays, a linux laptop will do that for a decade easy.

If you are comfortable with installing the os yourself, https://frame.work is an option very in-line with this sub, they are not tested by time yet though.

Lenovo and Dell sell pre-installed linux. https://system76.com/ and https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/ are dedicated vendors.

A used ThinkPad is a classic budget friendly choice if you are comfortable installing linux yourself or know someone that can help you.

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wired-one t1_izxa55b wrote

Just so you know, hardware support in Linux is not BIFL anymore. The upstream kernel and distribution maintainers are not packaging releases for some older hardware anymore.

This is particularly the case with hardware drivers and the more commercial releases of Linux like RHEL and Ubuntu not shipping support for very old, out of support hardware devices for their certified partners.

We are also starting to see community distributions looks at the oldest hardware they wish to support. Many distributions are now looking at deprecating support for all hardware older than the Intel Core series of processors, in order to improve performance of the kernel.

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emil-sweden t1_j0mdt9l wrote

I would still expect to get 20 years of security updates even on Ubuntu right? At least 10 years of major version upgrades and then 10 years of support for that last major release.

Inter Core is pretty old at this point (quick Google got me 2006) and I would expect that it will take quite a while yet before it is hard to find a supported release that have not taken the jump and dropped support.

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wired-one t1_j0mfi92 wrote

Ten years of support for each LTS release. And you can update from LTS to LTS, usually.

https://ubuntu.com/security

So the general plan for many distros is to drop core 2 duo and core 2 quad. The oldest supported will be the core I series. I3 i5, i7.

Many distros are also moving to require EFI and will drop legacy bios support.

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