HACKER Q&A
📣 locusofself

Cheap laptop for Linux without GUI (for writing)


Hey HN,

I'm on a quest for a distraction-free writing device and considering a super cheap laptop which I can just run vim/nano on.

I'd like: - Excellent battery life - Good keyboard - Sleep/wake capabilities (why is this so hard with Linux?)

I'm thinking some kind of chromebook? Maybe an old thinkpad?

  👤 david927 Accepted Answer ✓
An older ThinkPad is a great choice. Sometimes when a company goes out of business or upgrade, they dump a bunch of laptops and you can get used ThinkPads on the cheap.
👤 functionmouse
Used n4120 hp stream 11 maybe, should be sub-$100 and more than 8 hours battery. I don't know how sleep/wake works from a text mode TTY machine if that's what you mean.