We permit any kind of laptop so long as it has a "modern" browser. I've got a few kids running Ubuntu or some other form of Linux on their PC laptops. We don't discriminate if they want to use something more complex; that said, the market speaks for itself. For early middle school, almost all parents choose the simplest option, the Chromebook.
To be encourage using a computing device at school, and then being forbidden from using one which can teach you actual computing.
That honestly sounds like crazy talk.