The instances you speak of are actually called "communities". Instances are Lemmy servers that contain them. So lemmy.world is a instance, while !techsupport@lemmy.world is a community in the lemmy.world instance.
The desktop you suggested seem to be more than enough for very basic usage (browsing, presenting etc.). I do suggest installing Linux on them, unless you need to use Windows specific apps.
From a quick look, looks like a nice project.
If it proves to be more usable with higher accuracy than OSM and there's an android apk for it, I'll try it.
DDG is not any better than bing.
If you are willing to give your data to the "good guys" so they can make money with your data, you ultimately failed at protecting your privacy.
I do wonder how they get the money to plant these trees, hmm...
edit: oh, look at that! Even ecosia started getting into AI. Truly impossible for search engines not to get into AI territory these days, funny right? Even kagi did.
Yeah same.