The alternatives are:

• Windows based solution: will be super bloated, locked down preventing customizability, and will try to obtain as much data on you as possible to sell to advertisers, I'm sure among other reasons others here will gladly point out.
• MacOS based solution: Even more locked down than a Windows based solution, hardware may even be more proprietary so good luck swapping out components yourself to fix it, and will try to obtain as much data on you as possible to sell to advertisers.
• iOS: same reasons as MacOS, with the exception of it not being as locked down.
• Android based solution: is controlled by Google and therefore will try to obtain as much data on you as possible to sell to advertisers.

Alternatives to Linux like other Unix based systems, FreeBSD, etc. I don't know enough about, so whether or not it would be better on this kind of a product I don't know.