Older Thinkpads like the ones from Gluglug are old hardware but you can turn
them in a quite capable laptop fairly easily if you're not afraid to turn a
screwdriver. Consider for example (I'm not sure where you are, I'm in the US
so I'm looking at US prices, YMMV):
1) Used x200 with 2.4ghz core 2 duo processor - $65
2) Replacement wifi card or dongle that works with free software - $5
3) New ~100gb SSD - $50
4) 2 x 4gb ram modules - $50
5) Ultrabase dock - $15
6) AC adapter x 2 (one for dock and one for laptop) - $30
7) New 9 cell battery - $30
Total cost: $245 for a 2.4ghz dual core laptop with 8GB ram and SSD that
works perfectly with Trisquel - and you also avoids the Microsoft tax that
you would have to pay if you bought a new laptop. Plus you could cut out a
lot of the upgrades I mentioned if money is tight.
Freedom issues aside, that is an amazing value compared to less powerful
brand new systems (not even taking into account that those systems are bogged
down with a proprietary operating system and malicious crapware). If you
consider that you can bring 7 year old hardware that costs next to nothing
back to life - that is a pretty compelling argument, not only for freedom but
also from an economical and ecological standpoint.
If you're really ambitious and have a BeagleBone Black or something else that
can program an SPI flash chip, you can even flash Libreboot on it and truly
run free.
If you are not comfortable going this route, Think Penguin's laptops look
good... so there are definitely options if people are motivated, but
unfortunately if people don't understand how freedom intersects with
technology, it will be hard to convince them that a computer that won't run
Flash is better than one that will.
I think RMS and FSF understand the need for a free computer at this point...
in the 90's they didn't focus on it because it was so far out of reach, and
victory in the OS battle was still not assured (its still not, but IMO at
this point GNU/Linux and free operating systems in general won't die with a
single person or organization).
