Arch Linux or Artix Linux. Artix is easier than Arch, because they offer pre-installed graphical environment and graphical installation. Of course, they have arch-like base live iso as well. Also, Artix is systemd-free(runit, openrc and s6 are actually much faster and simpler than systemd).
I highly recommend suckless's dwm, because it is extremely lightweight, fast and highly customizable. The are several drawbacks such as lack of documentation (code is your documentation) and patching (you usually have to install patches manually).
st(simple terminal) - suckless terminal, support UTF-8 characters, emojis(you need to install libxft-bgra). I use Luke Smith's build of st.
Neovim and vim can improve your productivity and they are actually working in your terminal, so you can use them via ssh. If you like "normie-friend" text editor, I highly recommend VSCodium.
Firefox is fast and open-source browser, without google's unnecessary tracking. You can extend it with some extensions:
mpv is lightweight, open-source, fast and reliable media player. You can play YouTube and other hostings' videos in mpv, simply by installing youtube-dl.
cmus - lightweight music player with vi-like bindings.