Also, what would be the best linux-like operating system? I'm most familiar with Ubuntu, but anything will do.
Qubes is one of the less-insecure alternatives, http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2014/03/computer-secu...
Intro to Tails/Tor: http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/tails-above-rest-install...
Android hardening (non-trivial effort): https://blog.torproject.org/blog/mission-impossible-hardenin...
Rants on community: http://igurublog.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/biography-of-a-cyp... & http://igurublog.wordpress.com/2014/04/03/tso-and-linus-and-...
Rant on Linux systemd: https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/8/12/459
Desktop security alternatives: http://theinvisiblethings.blogspot.com/2012/09/how-is-qubes-...
Designing open crypto hardware: http://wiki.cryptech.is/
I suppose the novena is nice because it's fairly open source hardware, and it's designed by Bunnie of the EFF.
George R.R. Martin, author of Game of Thrones, uses an old computer running DOS+WordStar to write his future novels. His writing computer is air-gapped, i.e. never connected to the Internet, http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/14/george-r-r-martin-writes-ev...
The CEO of AirBnB carries around the corporate strategic plan on typewritten paper, http://www.fastcompany.com/3027107/punk-meet-rock-airbnb-bri...
Along similar old-school lines, it's not a bad idea to improve our human ability to memorize information, e.g. long passwords, http://artofmemory.com/