Feedly is the most user-friendly (albeit also perhaps privacy-unfriendly) option imo. I used them for years before I started self-hosting through FreshRSS. If you are targeting someone unfamiliar, I’d go that route
I’m biased, you could find a Chromebook that fits your requirements (+ chrultrabook requirements) and then wipe ChromeOS and replace it w/ pure Linux. You won’t waste money on hard drive, RAM or CPU but you can get a more modernized-looking unit w/ 2 USB-C ports.
I just did some digging on Best Buy and Amazon for sales, but mostly came across larger models or models that were MediaTek/Snapdragon (the chrultrabook team almost exclusively works on intel devices).
I’d say your best bet is to go to the supported devices list, and Ctrl + F for ‘13’ or ‘11’ to highlight the smaller-sized chromebooks and then check to see what’s available, or to jump in the Discord and pose the question to those in the linux channel
As of next month, I’ve been using Chromebooks for 10 years however I also came to the same conclusion re: Google/ChromeOS over the summer.
Initially, I bought a Windows laptop but the keyboard layout (specifically the function keys) felt absolutely foreign, even after I wiped it and installed Debian. In retrospect, my theory is that a $500 Chromebook has worse internals but a much better keyboard/trackpad than a Windows equivalent, and that the keyboard layout is more user-friendly in a browser-first world. Eventually, I went back to my Chromebook but with a twist.
I’m biased, but since you seem like you know your way around Linux and tinkering, one suggestion that hasn’t been mentioned is that you buy a new Chromebook and turn it into a Chrultrabook (aka a Chromebook w/ ChromeOS completely wiped & replaced w/ Linux).
I’ve been running one of the last few months and it’s been an overall pleasant experience. Perhaps most important for me is that the tutorial includes keyd to reprogram the keyboard shortcuts to mirror the Chromebook layout. The community is growing and responsive, especially on the Linux side.
Recently I’ve created multiple ‘rooms’ in Telegram w/o any intentions of adding another person. Each room has a theme so that my notes are segmented. Also I have access to Google Speech Services, so I moved away from voice recordings completely. Instead, I dictate my notes, which are automatically turned into text. Works for a couple paragraphs, but if I were taking recording work meetings, I’d probably use Google Recorder
I hear you, but isn’t the proverbial horse’s head the fact that the EU is looming over them and forcing them to make a move?
RCS and USBC have been available for a while. It seems disingenuous not to acknowledge that Apple has purposely dragged their feet so they could make more profit selling proprietary software and hardware which is probably why you’re being downvoted
Experienced the same issue when I tried to sign up 2-3 months. Went down a rabbit hole and then just decided to not host w/ them.
There is a workaround where you can create an account if it is on a different gitlab instance (ie: I was able to join git.joinfirefish.org w/o the CC info) but I don’t know how useful that is in the grand scheme of things.