What does he think is going to happen if he gets out of the settlement? The evidence seems pretty damning. If he was found guilty he would probably have to pay massive fines and likely devalue his shares in Tesla and his overall net worth.
Brother is pretty analogous and you can refill the toner cartridges!
Classic arch Linux is the way to go imo. If you need something a little more turn key, I would go with linux mint Debian edition! Debian was the first distro I ever used, an I think if you feel at home there, linux mint Debian edition might be what you’re looking for.
Lexmark is just as bad as hp and is made by a Chinese company. Brother is the wave.
Nix OS, Guix or Vanilla OS for sandboxing I guess. But basically everything but Ubuntu is pretty good for privacy, it’s a big part of free software philosophy.
It all depends and your budget and priorities. If you care about coreboot and Intel ME, go with system76 or an old thinkpad. Otherwise, Dell latitudes and new thinkpads are sufficient. Based on your description, I think system76 would be the way to go, but you might also want to check out a thinkpad p52.
Nix.