Is there anything I'm not considering?

Get Win11 IoT LTSC. It doesn't have any spyware or Copilot+ crap and probably never will. This Windows version is meant for critical systems that must not have any unnecessary crap installed on them so it only gets security updates. Keys can be had on the cheap from third party sellers.

 

No such thing as fast hardware incapable of running local AI. That's like asking for a computer incapable of doing math. It's a matter of relative capability and efficiency; a dedicated NPU (which can just be disabled, either in firmware or software) is not doing anything that the CPU categorically cannot and any modern GPU, even integrated graphics, tends to be a passable NPU. There is also a distinct irony in trusting Intel's and Dell's security features, presumably on a system with a Microsoft OS, while fussing over much more far fetched privacy exploits.

Privacy and security are best addressed directly, not by trying to cripple hardware capabilities to make it more difficult to run very specific classes of software. The low hanging fruit here is just disabling everything you don't need, blocking telemetry, and running third-party and/or open source encryption, with sane password policies and no biometrics.

All that said, the Lattiude 7340 with an i7-1365U should be a perfectly capable general-use laptop, if one isn't really gaming. The main reason I like Dell vs some other brands is that one can cap maximum battery charge in firmware. It's generally also easy to disable TPM, secure boot, anything related to vPro, the camera, microphone, and fingerprint reader. Firmware updates are also regular and tend to be maintained a very long time.



Even Windows 11 IoT LTSC enables a lot of telemetry and reporting by default, though all the enterprise versions make it more straightforward to disable than on the consumer editions.

Regardless, if one isn't doing anything that absolutely mandates Windows, I recommend Linux, plus LUKS full disk encryption setup during the install, for anyone who is security/privacy concious. Windows has better hardware monitoring/tuning tools and some native Windows games still perform better on Windows, but for anything I'm not playing modern games on, and anything I'm not regularly tweaking, I'm putting Linux on it.

 

Which one?

Thus far, I prefer Arch based distros like Manjaro, EndevourOS, or CachyOS. Rolling releases simplify a lot of stuff.

So the question is, is there a distro that makes sure that any executable or source tarball made for Linux, will run issue free and even if there is an issue, tell the user exactly what needs to be fixed or installed instead of giving cryptic error messages that you then waste hours trying to figure out?

I don't think there is any way to guarantee such an experience, nor do I feel it's a reasonable expectation for any OS on any user defined platform. Windows isn't remotely free from issues like this. If anything, such problems have been more common in my daily Windows use than with vaguely modern Linux distros. I regularly have to diagnose missing dependencies (VC++ and .NET are common ones even in out-of-box configs, while plenty of apps, or even certain Windows components themselves, balk at missing AppX packages, even if those packages are easily removable) and cryptic error messages (things like DEP or ASLR causing 0xc0000005 errors with binaries that weren't built to support those features, requiring manually adding custom image execution options to the registry) in Windows...probably with more frequency than I do on my Linux systems.

There is a learning curve to anything. People who are experienced with Windows, but who have never touched Linux, are going to need to learn a few things to have as smooth an experience as they are used to. That said, I generally think the Linux learning curve is easier than the Windows one, even as someone who has vastly more experience with Windows than Linux. Microsoft deliberately obfuscates things and generally tries to avoid surrendering control to users.

 

Very interesting cpu-world thread for the OP: Page 9 - Question - Intel had a 7 GHz CPU years ago

An absolutely RARE Pentium 4 980 Extreme Edition dual core (4 threads) discovered!

 

sounds like you made a solid choice. The i7-1365U isn’t some crazy gaming chip, but for general use, browsing, office stuff, media, and even some light dev work, it’s totally fine. 16GB RAM is a sweet spot too — 32GB is only really worth it if you’re doing VM work, rendering, or something really memory-hungry, so skipping that extra $700 was smart.

Dell Latitudes are known for being pretty reliable, especially on the business/security side. Stuff like TPM, vPro, BIOS options, and the ability to lock down things like webcam/mic are actually nice if you’re concerned about privacy. Plus, Dell usually keeps firmware updates going for a long time, which is better than a lot of other brands.

As far as your concern about AI/telemetry stuff — the hardware itself won’t really force anything. Like others said, it’s more about what OS and software you’re running. Windows can be tweaked, but if you’re super privacy-focused, some people just go Linux with full disk encryption. That way you’re in control instead of relying on Dell/Intel/Microsoft to protect you.

So yeah, overall the 7340 with that chip and 16GB should serve you really well unless you’re planning on gaming or pushing it with workloads that need a beefier CPU/GPU. For everyday use + privacy concerns, you’re already ahead of the curve just by being cautious and setting things up the way you want.