On topic, this is how I got into computing and Linux. I moved out as soon as I graduated high school and the only computer I had was an gen 1 mac mini and a tiny netbook with a blazing 1Ghz single core Intel atom (32bit). Even XP ran slow. Couldn't install vista nor the relatively new windows 7.

A friend told me about Linux. So I thought I had nothing to lose. What I didn't know is what I had to gain.

Ended up getting hooked. Grabbed computers out of the dumpster at my local community college and was able to piece together a few mildly decent machines. And even to this day I still recycle computers into random servers. Laptops and phones are usually great. They can't do everything but that's not the point. You'd be surprised what a 10 yo phone can still do.

I'm not trying to brag, but do want people to know that it's very possible to do a lot in absolutely nothing. I was living paycheck to paycheck at the time. It's not a situation I want anyone to go through, but there is a lot more free hardware out there than you think. People throw out a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff that isn't even broken! Everything I learned on was at least 5 years old at the time. You don't need shiny things and truth is that you don't get a lot of advantages from them until you get past the noob stage. It's hard, but most things start hard. The most important part is just learning how to turn it into play.