@dulanyw @mcc maybe i should find such a machine for cheap (shouldn't be too hard if they are unsupported) to see how it goes, though it's unlikely to be better than even my aging thinkpad, so it would be more like a project than anything useful 😅. But good to know that there are decent solutions, it's quite sad to see working hardware get destroyed instead of being useful to people.
@tshirtman @mcc I've seen some units on Woot.com for around $60, and I'm sure Craigslist and Ebay likely have some good deals, too. The instructions on the GalliumOS website will get you through reflashing the BIOS - and then you can install whatever distribution you want. It's fun (in the "installing Linux on a non-Linux computer" sense of fun)!