As part of giving back to the community I’ve rebuilt a couple PC laptops to get to folks who have need. It's been extremely important to have access to a laptop or desktop during the pandemic and some families simply don’t have the funds (or support) for them. You need technology to help with most social services - and using computers is keeping many many folks safe - by giving them a way to connect from home. School, unemployment, entertainment, access to libraries, banking, shopping - and the information to help you do what you need to do.
Linux is a free OS (operating systems) For a number of years I’ve been interested in how to keep computers out of the waste stream. There are lots great organizations that have programs for this (Freegeek is one). A number of years ago I helped a youth team explore free operating systems for computers (this is the software that makes the computer work) - Linux - I got interested in a version called Ubuntu as it seemed that they had great support and at first were very focused on folks with little or no experience. Basically Linux (and great online resources) made it possible to learn how to clean up and regenerate older PC laptops with new operating systems (for security and up-to-date software). Also it's fairly inexpensive to upgrade RAM and to speed them up by swapping out an older spinning hard drive with an SSD (solid state drive) the speed difference is pretty amazing.
Linux Mint Currently I've been using a variation of Ubuntu Linux called Linux Mint. It seems to be a pretty simple version of Linux with lots of online support. I use this version to install on PC laptops as it's quite fast even on older laptops and has lots of familiar apps. Also Linux is very, very secure in terms of viruses and malware. Linux will “just-work” once it's up and running. The software will tell you when it needs to update and will do that pretty much automatically. The other part of Linux I like is that you learn a lot about computers and operating systems and this knowledge is transferable to other types of operating systems and hardware. It has taught me some foundational skills that help a bunch with other types of computer troubleshooting.
ChromeOS In progress -- ChromeOS - https://www.neverware.com/freedownload#intro-text