I am going to tell a sad thing that will make you all feel offended, but I can’t refrain:
The problem isn’t in the place/server/whatever. At least that is the minor part of the problem. The problem is in the people themselves. No matter where they will go, they will bring their shit with them to that new place.
Avoid small “made for [something]” distros. Use something as mainstream as possible. Debian/Ubuntu/RedHat. Select something that you like from these.
I have been boycotting Microsoft for 10-15 years already. Feel fine.
My keyboard has a few modes of backlight. Most of them are crazy shit without any purpose. I can’t disable them programmatically as their shitty shitware doesn’t work under Linux. So after every reset/turn-on I cyclically run through those blimping abominations of backlight modes.
I miss old IBM or Mitsumi keyboards that were just keyboards.
It’s not “zuck, elmo, and pals” who create those “fascist advertisements”. People do. And they will do it wherever they are.