The terms on the right to use user data in section 4.1 are also a bit surprising. I’d expect that from a social network like Facebook, but not from a text editor.

Oh, and I suggest to search the Arch wiki for suggestions for Linux software that match what you want to do. The packages named there are usually available in other major distros, too!

That also happens to be good advice if you want to reduce addictions that are caused by “addictive by design” platforms and parasocial media.

In a nutshell, it is like controlling smoking: Not doing it at all is often easier and costs much less energy, than controlling the extend of usage.

One reason for this is that such a decision shifts your sub-conscious fous from "Should I do this on Linux or Windows??“ to: “How do I do this in Linux - or what might I enjoy doing instead?”

My feeling is that might be a lack of choice here. So, just my 0.00002 cents, to supply you with a few more options:

• Just use Debian. It is boring but it will work.
• Or, Tumleweed has been named. But it is not maximally stable. Better, use Tumbleweed in a VM on top of OpenSuSE leap. That way, you have both superb stability and a very current system.
• You could also sell your nvidia card (let’s be honest, it probavly will only bring you grief), and get a AMD radeon which is fully supported by a libre kernel. Then, you can install Guix on it. Then you have a truly reproducible, very lean and organized system.
• If dropping the nvidia card sounds too extreme for you, you can also install Debian, and install Guix as a package manager on top of it. That will work because the Debian kernel supports the hardware. But don’t forget that NVidia is a nuisance, often. Well, you might have luck.
• Let’s say you are short on money and you don’t want a system that consumes too much RAM, since that has gotten expensive, man. So, you could get Debian with XFce as Desktop environment. Or, even leaner, you could get ICeWM.
• Or in case you want a very fast Lisp-based window manager with very fast, manual tiling, try StumpWM, say, on Debian.
• Or, if you want an automatic tiling WM, give i3wm or sway a try. Or GNOME with paperWM extension.
• GNOME would also run on Ubuntu, or on Mint. Actually, it is all Debian under the hood, mostly. Just easier to install.
• Or you want a privacy-focused Distro. Try Trisquel.
• Or, you just want to keep it simple, perhaps. In that case, I’d recommend Debian. Or, perhaps for the start, Debian-derived distro that is easy to install. There are plenty.
• But when you want to have it even simpler, get rid of the nvidia card. This really simplifies things.

That might be the right thing if the bath water is toxic.

One problem is that with this monopolization of the web, browser vendors like Google can yank the standard in any direction they like (for example for more tracking and more ads, or surveillance). And you can’t make another browser because the protocol and features are needlessly way too complex, so it is legally an open standard but practically not. In the end, everyone will have to use Googles browser and suffer the included tracking.

There are only ~2 web browsers left

And the only widely used browser not owned by big tech has about 2.2% market share now. And it is falling.

Didn’t properly backup my data and lost a couple years of work doing a fresh install (school work and personal projects).

Always put /home on a separate partition.

Would not recommend doing backups drunk.

I would not use the root password when drunk.

Well, I was saying ultra-low maintenance, and most of the time, we both had much more important things to do (apart from navigating a pandemic). For example, going ice skating or trampoline jumping with her kid. And she is also not the type of person who likes yearly breaking UI changes. But as you remind me, I’ll get her another dist upgrade and browser update, so that online banking continues to work for her. That’s what you have friends for :-)

I can confirm that the ultra-low-maintenance variant can work as well: Years ago, a dear friend of mine needed a replacement for her antique Windows laptop, to write reports for her job training as a psychotherapist. She had two jobs, no money, a little daughter, and zero time to bother with computers.

I gave her a Thinkpad X220 with Debian on it. I got zero support requests from her. That was 2016, and she is still using it.