Many people have perfectly capable machines sitting around unused, gathering dust.
Or, for less than $100 you can get a refurbished computer or a brand new Raspberry Pi that will run Linux very well.
The Linux Mint and Raspberry Pi communities are friendly compared to most. A lot of operating system communities, including Apple and Microsoft communities, can be insufferable. For a lot of people spending a thousand dollars (or more...) on a computer is not an option, and most people are not really interested in becoming wizards of the command line.
Once you are familiar with modern Linux distributions you might never go back to Microsoft or Apple products. The last Microsoft operating system I used on my home machines was Windows 98SE. Now if someone wants me to use Microsoft or Apple products they have to pay me.
I had a head-start on Linux, however. The first real operating system I used daily was BSD, beginning in the 'seventies. Switching to Linux from Windows 98SE was like going home again. Linux was modeled after BSD and Unix and ran a lot of the same software.
I'll confess my favorite travel computer is a $100 Chromebook.
I used to travel with very expensive Windows laptops and I hated it. I'm very good at losing or breaking stuff, especially on the road. Babysitting an expensive laptop is not my idea of fun.
Chromebooks are common where I live. Our public high schools hand them out to any student who doesn't have a laptop computer or doesn't want to use their own laptop at school. If I was using my sticker-covered Chromebook at Starbucks and left it unattended on the table while I was away taking a bathroom break it would probably still be there when I returned. The same can't be said for a $1500 (with educational discount) Apple MacBook Pro.
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