https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Laptop/Lenovo
^here’s a good place to look for compatibility and hardware support.
You said your parents believe it to be a poor choice because of the machine age. Do you mind me asking what you purchasing it primarily for?
If hiking and cycling interest you, have you considered mountain biking? Do you live in an area where trying out mtb might be a possibility?
It’s difficult to see from the picture provide what you might mean by “kinda open”. Can you provide a picture or may be an example of what is fastened to the valve body opposite the pipe? If you can’t, is what’s depicted in this link what you see? https://www.mcmaster.com/mvC/Library/20210709/7CBF13E4/4627K333_Medium-Pressure Iron Pipe Fitting.PDF
Is that a plug i see there on the end? Have you considered removing it and opening the valve a little to see what comes out?
The future is now, depending on where you live. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51321661
System of a Down’s album Toxicity. Prison Song’s opening note is basically what defines the experience.
You can perform the bios update via bootable media. Here are the readme and iso links.
I can’t help you with the recovery media, but a couple of the problems you describe were resolved with driver and firmware updates that are still available from the oem.
If you plan on using the device for school, it might be worth your effort to check with the school to see if your program of study will be accommodating, allows for, or otherwise specifies directly what os to use. Some institutions offer free or reduced cost licenses for what os is required. I know that there may be some coursework that can require a specific os for the applications you’ll be required to use. Test monitoring software is the first, and probably most extreme, example that comes to mind.