cmat273

It uses the Linux kernel yes but not what OP is asking at all

I doubt it’ll work with proton but we will see. In any case I wouldn’t mind this much because they say they’ll let you disable it

Debian! As far as hardware you’d probably have an easier time with an AMD GPU but otherwise most everything works. Get intel wifi if you can/want wifi.

not really unless you’re trying something relatively unique like nixos or void etc. you can do most things on any distro

Framework would be my first choice if I could afford it. Grab yourself an amd thinkpad from ebay