Though if you’re good with using Ubuntu then new ThinkPads and Dells and some others generally work well as you get the enablement patches before they’ve rippled through to the mainline kennel. However you still often have a happier time waiting for others to iron out the kinks, not to mention better hardware prices by getting clear out deals for outgoing generations.

After years of ThinkPads I joined a company that gave me a Dell Inspiron and I am unimpressed in various minor ways. Crap keyboard is the big one.

Yes it’s trivial to host a repo, and then you have achieved approximately 2% of a forge.

Gnome’s was very inferior last I looked. No brightness factor and it was sunset or fixed time.

If I went back to the vi interface for some reason I’d at least use ctrl-[. I dislike lifting my hand more than I dislike using modifiers.

I used vi for a few years so have the muscle memory and the sole advantage in my perception was that everything is simple typing with hands remaining in the home keys position (except Escape, ironically).

So it’s more relaxed if you find using modifiers onerous, but I don’t find Ctrl or Alt significantly worse than Shift, and I don’t find it any worthwhile advantage.

It’s hilarious how uncool it is to suggest Ubuntu but it often just works, including very recent hardware if it’s from Canonical partners like Lenovo or Dell. And the kerfuffle about things like snaps are way overblown.