Whats your use case?
Was somewhat recently considering a linux laptop myself and ended up deciding the steamdeck fit my needs well.
A dock + portable keyboard & mouse for when i need to do typing or w/e, and a fun handheld console for when i want fun.
That being said, depending on what your "older" laptop is, it might not actually be much stronger, or it might be wildly overpowered for what you need.
So they both store data in a table like structure, but that's about where the similarities end. Excel is useful for handling smaller more flexible data sets, but has performance, scalibility, storage, and structural deficiencies compared to SQL, it's also harder for computer languages to communicate with a shared excel dataset and modify it vs SQL.
One of the major issues with excel as a database is data limits, excel only allows for ~1 million rows. Considering there are ~1 billion possible SSNs, excel would not be a great medium for them for that reason alone.
One big advantage of SQL is you need to structure your data on the creation of the table and it's designed with the expectation that all data will fit a structure, including unique keys, format, and other limits and structures. This allows you to enforce database rules easily and massively reduce storage size and query times.
There are a bunch of other reasons for using SQL but most of it boils down to either it's faster, easier for multiple computers to access and read/modify simultaneously, or better for enforcing rules and structures when modifying it.
This is actually really strong for a max level artificer as they get a +1 to all saves for each attunement
Just because someone buy/use a product from a company doesn't mean they like the CEO.
I wonder if the steam deck will work for you. Its sacrifice of physical keyboard for portability will probably be the deal breaking issue if I were to guess, but not sure. I've seen plenty of people use them as computers for various field projects not game related. It's cheapest is 350 if you don't need a lot storage on the device and the storage is upgradeable. It's compatible with normal USB c hubs for if you do need a physical keyboard or w/e. There are definitely some hangups that may make it undesirable and from what you described some of them are definitely possible, ie if you want to pull it out in the field and do a lot of typing without setting up a dock and whatnot, it won't work for your needs. But if the fieldwork with it is mostly just start a program and connect a USB data source, and most typing will be somewhere with a desk (home office or w/e) then it may work.
I was personally looking for a Linux compatible laptop a while back (admittedly I asked the wrong community), and eventually came to the conclusion that my wife's steam deck was actually a great solution for my needs, the main times I needed a keyboard I could just setup a simple dock and plug one it (though if you get a USBC or Bluetooth keyboard the only use for the dock is for holding it upright or additional peripherals), and most of my on the go use of it doesn't need a lot of typing.
Very similar here, windows 11 being shittier and forced further pissing me off as windows 10 was supposed to be their last release shifting to a service model.
I've still yet to see a convincing reason windows 11 is an improvement in any way over 10.
Then steam decks came out with a solid proton version, and my only reason to stay on windows evaporated. I didn't even try dual booting windows.
Works great for moon druids too, to give them a ranged option in wild shape.
Sounds like he might want to marry a man then
Honestly, if they caught the hint, understood what it meant, and took action, that would be a miracle and would totally be worth some cheese.
It does, but giving a warlock enough dex (which considering they dont get heavy armor prof is reasonable) to pass a dex save occasionally and like 18 hp is all you would need for this to be a major issue.
You keep doing that to older DnD players too, except you drop hints that the enemies are in a cult that has been giving them power and when the wizard does fireball them, the wizard gets hit by a dozen hellish rebukes from all the young warlocks they just hit.
They need someone who hasn't already formed an opinion about the case, basically every time some high profile crime makes the national news this issue happens, especially those with a strong public response.