I'm talking about hiring a software engineer for a software development job. I have not met a good software engineer who wasn't also some level of geek. I'm thinking of all the great colleagues I've had over the years, and I would be really, really surprised if any of them didn't have some sort of computer at home. These are not "I just use my phone for everything" people.

I'm sure there are outliers, but given the low cost of used ex-corporate laptops in the western world, and presumably the candidate's interest in computers and software development, it's a fairly low bar to expect a candidate to have some sort of PC (laptop, desktop, Linux, Windows, Mac - whatever). I wouldn't expect it to be modern or expensive (I do this for a job and barely spend any money on computers these days), but I'd be really surprised if a candidate had nothing available.