to play with, sure. but in the case of a backup machine, you want something reliable, rock-solid, low maintenance and easy to use, which is why I recommended debian

I don’t think there’s any useful way to put it to regular use for yourself, but you could:

• install debian on it and keep it around in case of an emergency. turn it on once in a while to keep it updated (doesn’t need to be that often, it’s debian)
• use it on the go (no worries about it getting stolen)*
• use it a place where you wouldn’t use your main laptop as to not risk damange (camping, hiking, on a trip, etc)*
• install a friendlier linux distro and give it away to someone who doesn’t have a computer (a 10yo cousin maybe)
• give it away to someone who has a computer, but doesn’t have a second one and might be happy to get one to play with

*though i imagine the battery is not in good shape given your “beaten up” description

https://wayland.social/

this is likely to keep as much people on windows as possible in an effort prevent people from being able to disable (or not have at all) things like location tracking, telemetry, etc. the us govt is probably going to crack down hard on “terrorist” threats (aka socialists, palestine supporters, and even anyone moderately critical of us imperialism), so they’re gonna need all the information they can gather about people’s online activities

maybe it’s the same reason some banks don’t work on rooted android phones: they want to prevent you to control how your system works bc they count on being able to extract as much information as possible from your computer usage without your consent

termux

it is absolutely recommended to keep any system that has access to the internet up to date. i don’t know why people keep saying it isn’t

unless i’m missing something, any distro will do. i’d personally go with debian, but that’s my choice. opensuse is also an excellent choice if you want easy to use config tools

If DOS is like Windows the system clock ticks local time, but usually Linux likes UTC time

that’s entirely configurable

“less” right wing is still right wing

i’ve been made aware of how miserable living in a red state is. but being not as rabidly misogynistic and racist as republicans doesn’t make the dems “not right wing”. implementing better domestic policies doesn’t either. at the end of the day, both parties represent the interests of corporations, will implement austerity measures that widen your already massive wealth gap, and will make sure the us-american empire keeps the rest of the planet in a stranglehold

edit: as for you saying i’m ignoring reality, again, i’m aware republicans are worse for you, but i need you usians to truly grasp the reality that, unlike most other democracies, your two major parties are right-wing and ultimately uphold the same project. any right-wing politician for europe or latin america would feel at home in the democratic party

democrats are enthusiastic supporters of US imperialism and neoliberalism. they’re right wing. end of story

the only difference between republicans and democrats is that they sell US imperialism to different portions of the population. republicans are more honest about their intentions, but if there were only republicans, that would risk massive revolts from the more progressive-leaning portion of the population. this is why the democratic party exists: it allows the us govt to sell the same underlying project with a different face that’s more appealing to the average progressive voter

edit: to really drive my point home ask yourself: what is the official stance of the democratic party regarding free and public healthcare, free and public education (including higher education), progressive taxation, public transportation, labor legislation (especially regarding maternity leave), etc? not what some more left-leaning factions of the party say, i mean the actual official party stance. because these are absolutely uncontroversial among the left-leaning parties worldwide

it’s just an os, you’re not better just bc you memorized a bunch of terminal commands and willingly subjected yourself to a poorer user experience

if you don’t give a fuck about user freedom and just want to use a unix os, then fuck off to any bsd out there and stfu

yes and that sucked. i’m glad we’re not like that anymore

what is it with linux nerds not understanding that you can have configurability without it being mandatory? i’m not saying the terminal shouldn’t exist, just that i shouldn’t have to use it

every time you need to open a terminal for some basic system operation is a defeat for the system

(i get that this is not a very common operation, but still)

it’s not just that this is not for me. i genuinely don’t see the point of a terminal-only editor (even vim has a gui version) without any extensibility. the reason vim and emacs are still being used despite being old and full of cruft is that their extensibility makes them very adaptable. treesitter et al seem enough now, but what about ten years from now?

it’s also weird their motivation for being terminal-only is better performance, as if guis are this super resource intensive thing and not something that’s been mainstream for at least 30 years

there’s no such thing as politically neutral

obligatory reminder that us-american domestic politics are so skewed to the right that what appears “moderate” in the usa is right to far-right anywhere else

your “liberals” are right-wing

your “conservatives” are right-wing

both are liberals

for the terminal

no thank you

there is currently no plugin system available

lmao

agreed. they already told us the company is based, no need to tell they have ties to the ccp

oh, i forgot gnome forces you to reboot after each update (plasma just installs the updates in the background after you ask it to)