>>191602 (OP)
>Windows 10
I personally use Linux, but maybe Windows 7 or even XP can be fine, I don't know.
>Pixel 4a
I personally use a flip phone, but I've heard that it's easy to install "custom ROMs" on Pixel smartphones, which are like Android "distros" but with more user freedom and no spyware.
>>191606
>Rust in kernels and systemd
It certainly sucks, but there's no real tangible proof that those things spy on you.
Though if you want to avoid them you can look into BSD. I have never checked out the best one, FreeBSD, because of its satanic logo.
>And that's before you even get to the hardware backdoors
Well, there's not too much actual cases of it (at least Intel Management Engine) spying on you either. I think that it's possible, and I've heard that Trump has been spied on through the IME or whatever, but if you're just a random nobody it shouldn't matter too much, probably.
>>191609
Keep in mind that the main thing that makes distros look "different" at a glance are the desktop environments or window manager. If you like the appearance of a distro, you can copy it on a different one. For example Linux Mint uses Cinnamon (good enough) and Kubuntu uses KDE (very customizable, but heavy and crashy).
Avoid GNOME (used by Ubuntu, etc), in terms of appearance and functionality and customization it's basically for iBabies.
XFCE is fairly lightweight and stable, and offers decent customization. I personally use LXDE, though.
You can also go without a desktop environment and just have a window manager, which is what I used to do in the past, but there's not much reason to do it unless you're very autistic or want to post screenshots on 4chan /g/.
Anyway, about distros themselves, I use Arch, which is basically the only decent distro. It has a reputation of being a super hard hacker distro, but it's far from it. If you have no experience with Linux whatsoever and can't follow the installing instructions on the wiki, the live ISO already comes with an auto-installer program.
Arch also has a reputation of often breaking, but you should be fine as long as you don't mess too much with partial upgrades or downgrading programs or installing too much obscure questionable shit from the AUR or whatever (my uptime is 57 days as of writing this post).
About Mint and Kubuntu, they're both based on Ubuntu, which has cancerous shit like "snaps", but I'm pretty sure that the former removes it. Ubuntu is ultimately based on Debian, though, which has a philosophy of "stability" and maintaining old versions of programs, but adding in recent security patches, forming a sort of frankenprogram. I've never really used it but I've heard that you can easily break your system just by installing things from the main repos. But I guess that Mint can still be OK enough if you're just starting out.
Ultimately, I don't really think about my system too much or try to be elitist or whatever, and if something works for you, you can keep using it. Well, unless it's something spyware-ridden like Windows 10.