done exactly this - reading & commenting from an old ThinkPad running OpenBSD. I don't buy new computers, I buy old ones from craigslist (in fact, multiple, so I can use the same system & compatible parts for many years to come). :)
I've heard stories of Thinkpads with UEFI-level rootkits, flashed a modified UEFI myself (though my edits didn't achieve what I set out to do), and read about white-hat exploits putting keyloggers on the EC (power/keyboard controller): https://hackaday.com/2021/07/20/extracting-the-wifi-firmware.... I wouldn't fully trust used computers, to the extent I'd trust a Precursor, single-tasking microcontroller, or pre-2000 game console.
> reading & commenting from an old ThinkPad running OpenBSD
How old? IBM Thinkpads were often decent enough that I'd pick one up if I saw a good deal, but Lenovo makes them now and they've got a long history of pre-installing malware and backdoors in their products (often in exchange for money). It's a shame, because I hear they play very well with linux.
I'm not sure a Lenovo device would be any safer than the latest processors
Pretty much all OEMs preinstall adware. Microsoft infects their own OS with crapware.
They don't all ship with malware infested UEFI so that even reinstalling your OS won't remove the bloatware they installed. Also Lenovo has, multiple times now, installed adware on systems that seriously compromised the security of the user and/or the device.
Adware is bad, remote code execution is much worse.
Superfish was bad enough, but once the public became aware that the malware existed and was so insecure that it made their devices vulnerable to be hacked Lenovo provided people with a fix to remove the malware, but it left the security vulnerability that the malware introduced to the system in place leaving everyone to think they solved the problem when they were still vulnerable. People had to track down news articles and social media posts for information on how to correct the problem until Lenovo updated their instructions. (https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/02/how-t...)
OpenBSD Intel Atom n270+1GB RAM netbook user there, among others.
Lariza as the big webkit2gtk4 browser, Links and Lynx as normal browser, with media bound to mpv+yt-dlp and nsxiv. MuPDF and a pipe with einfo -pp | lynx... | less for ebooks. ImageMagick, FFMPEG, sox. C, Perl for programming.
Bitlbee and Swirc for multi IM chat, sfeed for RSS news and podcasts, slrn for Usenet news.
A slightly hacked PCSX4ALL emulator (PSX) plus Mednafen for retrogaming among Slashem, BSDGames and Frotz for IF games.
Who said slow? OK, no Google Earth but I can use some TCL/TK based OSM map viewer from the TkIMG demos, and no Wine to play the games for that era. But, meh, I only get GL 1.4, not enough for proper DirectX9 translation (GL 2.1 it's the true basic DX9->GL mapping), so I've got lots of libre alternatives from https://osgameclones.com and a custom ScummVM compiled from ports with --enable-all-engines added to the configure script so I can play games from the Apple II era, passing thru Ultima IV, Maniac Mansion, Broken Sword up to Blade Runner and, soon, Sanitarium.
