I got my license in the early 80’s, and at that time the cheapest cars were older american beaters with utterly terrible 2 and 3-speed slushbox automatics. The alternative were Japanese cars like Honda Civics, small, reliable, manual transmission cars that got great gas mileage and were way more fun to drive. All these years later I’m still driving a manual, currently a 2021 Toyota Corolla. It’s paid for, it gets around 35 mpg, and with regular maintenance it will run until the end of time.
I know American cars have improved a lot since the malaise era but you generally can’t get them with manual transmissions, so I’ll stick with the imports for now.
I am a network engineer and have used Linux as my primary desktop os since 2000 or so. With the bona fides out of the way, I picked up an Acer Chromebook Plus from Costco for $250 and I think it’s a great deal for the money (it’s currently on sale for $200). It has 8 gb memory, 512 gb storage, 8 cores, etc. Most important, it has a native linux environment that lets me install Linux apps, including GUI apps in case you prefer other browsers like Librewolf over Chrome.
Is it the best laptop on the planet? No. Is it the best laptop you can buy new for $200? Probably.