Laptop Recommendations?

[u/itslilsam]

I have a refurbished 2017 13" Macbook Air, I've had it for the last 8 or so years, and it works great. I had the battery and internals replaced in the last 5 years. But Apple is no longer rolling out updates for it, and I'm getting worried about security/losing capability. It also tends to run pretty hot and is starting to struggle with multitasking.

I'm a student and I mostly use my computer for school. But I also like to play the occasional steam game. I'm looking for a computer with 16+ GB RAM storage and 500+ GB total storage. I would like it to be 13" (or around that, for portability). Something like a fingerprint-to-unlock feature would be nice, but isn't necessary.

I'm not married to Apple, but I don't want something that runs Windows because I really don't like CoPilot. I'm open to exploring Linux (and was considering experimenting with Linux on my current computer, once I have a newer, reliable model for schoolwork). I also prefer refurbished models (for many reasons).

I'm hoping to buy something in the next couple of weeks, so I can take advantage of Labor day and back-to-school sales. It would be tough for me to buy something over $1500, but I'm open to anything under $2000. Any suggestions?