For me it’s also about reducing my reliance on my mobile. Teaching my kids by example that life isn’t only on my phone is easier when I can more clearly demonstrate what I’m doing. To listen to music I get my music device. When I want to take pictures, I grab my camera.
I had considered this. I still may at some point. I wanted to play with the original interface and experience that. Plus my car connects well to iPods (it’s an older car) and that’s pretty handy. I’m pretty sure it’ll get the audio from rockbox but less confident playlists and such will work.
I’ve been using a gen 5.5 for about 10 months and am quite enjoying it. I bought a refurb with a fresh battery and SD card replacement. Sounds great, nostalgia moments on point, and can enjoy music without my phone.
On Linux it’s been a bit cumbersome to get content on, and the podcast experience is subpar by modern expectations, but I still appreciate the tactile interface. It’s nice to interact with things that aren’t all glass touch surfaces.
This was my experience about a year or two ago. I was really impressed with how polished it was in ecosystem. Using Firefox, Typora, Plex and a bunch of other things that solved my user needs better don’t quite fit in right. When the update came that required me to wipe my system, I switched to Mint. I’m happy where I am now, but don’t believe Elementary was a bad thing - just clearly wasn’t aligned with what I needed.
I recently picked up a Dell latitude 7300 for less than $300usd. It has two sodimm slots (supports 32gb) and up to 1TB SSD. I’m pretty happy with it although it’s a touch older than the x1 carbon gen8. The 7400 is slightly larger with a 14” display and is the same generation otherwise.
I’m running Linux mint on it and haven’t tried your specific distro.
I picked up a used Latitude 7300 (I think?) last year and am quite happy with it. I appreciate that I can replace the ram and ssd myself for repair / upgrade.
I’m running Mint on it and haven’t noticed any problems.