I ' d get the 11 e , no contest . You ' ll get a better built machine , new and on warranty which you can extend vs . a 45 year old machine , used and off warranty . The 11 e has good Linux compatibility thinkpad 11 elinux and should give plenty of performance for your stated use cases we have one , used daily by my son , and it runs Office , music editing software , etc . just fine . Adding a cheap SSD will further increase the ruggedness of the machine . It ' s so well built that you could probably use it without a sleeve without much worry , though I ' d still use a bag or sleeve . We also have a Yoga 11 e , which is actually a pretty sweet little machine with its touch screen . Both are supersturdy . <| sep |> They build fat into their schedules to stay on time . That ' s why an on time departure results in an early arrival and a slightly late departure results in an on time arrival .