For me a cheap Chromebook does the job.

"The job" being communication, record-keeping, and entertainment.

In terms of hardware I also have a software-defined radio for communication and a direct input box for music recording.

Between Android, Chrome extensions and web services I don't need any generic Linux programs but if I did I could install them (and have in the past).

If I needed to do video editing, statistical analysis, or gaming I would need a different device. I think for the vast majority of people something like what I have will serve them perfectly fine.

I've disabled all the Google telemetry in Chrome & ChromeOS but of course I don't really know for sure that I'm getting a private experience.