You should try a normal distro like Mint or Zorin.

Arch and its forks aren’t stable distros and they’re best for experimentation rather than daily use.

This is not TikTok. You can say paedophiles.

You can already do that. Just skip the WiFi step in the setup then plug your own box into the HDMI port.

Google TV, WebOS and Tizen models let you do this, only Roku and Fire TV don’t AFAIK.

You can set up Google TV, WebOS and Tizen TVs without WiFi and just use the HDMI ports.

Onn / Thomson sticks seem to be the best available option.

They use the Google TV OS but you can turn off the tracking (Advertising ID / Usage Data / Personal Results) and enable apps only mode to disable Google’s crap and have a clean UI with just your apps.

It’s copying Notepad++.

They’ve been known to respond to legal requests to log IP adresses of the users of their VPN. I wouldn’t trust them.

Cloudflare just checks for bot activity and AWS is just a hosting provider. They don’t use data for ads or sell it to anyone.

You can escape the big tech tracking by installing uBlock Origin in your browser, and if you use their services, disabling personalised ads and search/activity history in their accounts.

Buying a used Pixel lets you use the hardware without funding Google.

They chose Google because they are the only major OEM to allow you to relock the bootloader after installing a custom ROM. Samsung, Motarola, Huawei, Xiaomi etc all don’t.

They literally said that French police are being told to treat Pixel phones as suspicious, which if true, shows why they’re concerned.

Get a cheap phone like a Galaxy A36 for the trip, then install some VPNs with GFW circumvention like Windscribe, Proton and Psiphon before you go.

You should also get a roaming SIM card, preferably from an MVNO or an eSIM app do you don’t get rip-off prices.

Roaming SIM cards usually route traffic through their native network like a VPN which bypasses the GFW and gives you some extra privacy.

And once you get there, don’t say anything negative about the Chinese government or politics.

Watching YouTube videos and reading posts here about unrelated subjects is okay as long as you are using a roaming SIM card, a VPN or preferably both togther.

I think the best choice is to get a non-gaming Windows laptop and install Linux on it.

If you don’t need something super powerful then get a refurbished Thinkpad T14 or Elitebook 840 G7 from eBay or Amazon.

Or if you need more CPU, a better screen, etc get a new Omnibook (7 or above) or Ideapad (5 or above) for a Macbook like feel or a Thinkpad for repairability.

Go to your Google account settings and make sure that web & app activity, location history and ad personalisation are turned off.

Then uninstall/disable the Google apps you won’t need then replace them with alternatives from F-droid (add the Izzyondroid repo too) like Cromite (in FFUpdater), Comaps, Thunderbird and QUIK SMS.

You should also follow standard practices like setting a non-easy to guess PIN code and also installing security updates.

Just don’t connect it to the internet. The radio and Bluetooth do not need an internet connection to work and you can use your phone for maps and music streaming.

If you’re using this laptop to do work, then Mint or Zorin can’t be beat. They have user-friendly interfaces, they have stable packages meaning updates are unlikely to break your OS, and you can still install new software through Flatpak and Snap.

Once installed, install Librewolf for web browsing, VLC for video playback, OnlyOffice for MS Office files, and any other software you need from the built-in software store. If you choose Mint then you need to turn on unverified Flatpaks in the software store for everything to appear.

Also, with the original 1 x 4 GB of RAM and mechanical hard drive, this laptop will be slow with a modern OS, so I recommend upgrading it to 8 GB RAM (2 x 4 GB is recommended for dual channel speed) and an SSD beforehand.

Use a VPN with a circumvention protocol like Stunnel. Windscribe has a ‘stealth’ mode using it.