Garmin smartwatch but used offline only and connected with the FOSS gadgetbridge software. I’ve also started doing some manual tracking in a diary just to get my thoughts down with it.

I would expect that the Asus security issues are with the stock OS, but I can’t argue with the gl.inet recommendation.

Also unrelated, but if you’re running a x86 system with gigabytes of RAM, why not run Opnsense at that point?

I believe it’s gotten better but historically *BSD had poor SQM support (bufferbloat mitigation), which is particularly useful on slower, asymmetric connections and where low, consistent latency is paramount.

It was also a bit of a laggard on Wireguard support, although that’s long since been fixed. So mainly you might prefer OpenWRT if you want the Linux kernel which tends to get features more quickly. Also because it’s so low on resource usage (including disk space), you can put it in a VM and very rapidly recover in the case of issues.

You could of course also use a full Linux based router OS, but I don’t believe there are many with a web interface, which most users would prefer.

This thread is helpful for Lenovo minipcs specifically: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/lenovo-thinkcentre-thinkstation-tiny-project-tinyminimicro-reference-thread.34925/

Another approach would be setting up your own recursive revolver with e.g. Unbound. It’s debatable whether it’s more or less private than using DoH etc but it would bypass the DNS tampering by your ISP at the least.

You could also get a wildcard cert using dns challenge, and not even expose the subdomains publically.