Used Thinkpad if you want to save money and have easy Linux compatibility. Double check compatibility when you find a good option since ~10% of Thinkpads have a random Linux-unfriendly hardware component.

For gaming I would recommend getting a second hand (or even first hand) steam deck rather than getting a laptop with a dedicated graphics card. It will be more future-proof and work better. It will probably work out to be a wash in costs after a few years. As a bonus, it is also a Linux computer and with a dock, monitor, keyboard, and mouse, it can be used like a desktop, like with a full desktop environment.

LibreOffice is the main alternative to MS Word, Excel, etc. Google Docs is a cloud service so if you want an open alternative you’d need to run your own service on a computer somewhere. There are services that are good for that but I’m not sure if that’s what you were asking about.

A used thinkpad for 1/3rd of that price. Perfect tu run Linux Mint. As a used device there’ll be w10 on it, you can dual-boot when needed to ease the transition.

LibreOffice will get you covered in all .doc .xls etc matters.

I don’t know of any laptop that’s really certified for a 3 feet drop tho.

If you want to use linux on it check out some lenovo thinkpads or notebooks. I have an lenovo g50-80. Its 10 years old. I run debian on it. It has wifi issues cause of old hardware. But its fine otherwise. I have an asus laptop which I use daily running windows. That one is old too.

As far as alternatives go theres libreoffice. There’s only office but its not open source maybe and it runs fine as an app image. You can google docs in browser anyway.

If you never used linux I wouldn’t suggest putting it on a laptop you are going to get. Try it out in a vm. Keep in mind its a lot tinkering files to like run games on wine or lutris. The games you mentioned seem to run fine on proton I just checked.

Have you considered not doing what you’re asking and instead doing what only one person in the thread so far has suggested and getting a simple cheap old laptop and a steam deck or desktop pc?

If you’re hard on shit you’re gonna fuck up the laptop. It’s okay, I am that way too and that’s why learned how to fix em.

Don’t spend a bunch of money on something you’re gonna break.

“But farting_weedman, if I don’t spend a bunch of money I won’t be able to play video games!”

I know.

By not spending all your money on a laptop which you’re much more likely to break, you have 75-80% of your money left to buy something you can game on.

Like a steam deck or some psychogamers 2-3 year old build.

So what should you buy?

I like the t480 thinkpad. It will work fine for your needs and can accommodate a decent amount of ram and storage. Shop around, but you can get a goodass laptop for like ~$200.

Now you can either get a steam deck, the easy and “smart” choice, or you can start trying to figure out what parts you can pick out of the local dump for free to maximize the amount of your remaining $800 you can spend on a video card.

There’s much more capable people at combing pcpartpicker on this site, but I will leave you with this one thing: reduce your target resolution and frame rate to maximize your dollar.

You can have a look at Huawei Matebooks just to have a comparison. Matebook 14, maybe, for something that is not outdated.

You can get an older generation framework laptop, great Linux and Windows support and you can upgrade the computer down the line.

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MSI