5
YADU
6y

So my laptop broke recently, and I've been looking for a replacement, but everything is so expensive.

I was thinking of just buying something really lightweight for like 100 - 200 $, then putting linux on it (no gui) and running everything through the terminal. I basically want to be able to work on github projects with, maybe use minimal internet.

Vim + git is all i use for github projects anyways, and lynx would let me do the small amount of internet that i want.

My one concern is that itd be very nice to have a window manager (terminator, i3, etc), not sure exactly how that would work with no gui.

Any thoughts on this setup overall? Or specifically the wm part?

Comments
  • 0
    I mean it could work, it would just be borderline impossible to use anything beyond the scope of the CLI. You could try it for a while and if you needed more install a minimal interface like LXDE or XFCE? Heck I just use pure i3 in my setup.
  • 0
    Raspberry Pi.

    You can even have a GUI if you want.
  • 0
    @intromatt can i carry it around like a laptop tho?
  • 0
    Yes, in your back pocket. Just don't bend it, it doesn't bend well. @YADU
  • 0
    @intromatt you can also get a case for it.
  • 0
    Or just keep it in a pickle jar. @Markus-A
  • 3
    A budget chromebook sounds like what you need, just wipe ChromeOS and install a distro on it if you can either find an x86 one that would be a better idea or you can just get a super cheap ARM device
  • 3
    @lxmcf ya a chromebook was what i was thinking
  • 1
    @YADU Probably you're best bet if your wanting cheap, other than a HP stream which I've personally had a million issues with when it comes to linux
  • 0
    @YADU for replacing i3 you could use tmux
  • 0
    I bought an old refurbished hp elitebook (2012) when I needed something cheap.

    It had an old i5 processor. 240GB SSD and 8GB of Ram.

    Only downside is that it was quite heavy and the charger was massive. But it did the trick.

    It cost me about 75€ all and all.
  • 0
    There's pinebook
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