I would put her on the latest Ubuntu LTS, make a single-user Ubuntu pro account so she keeps getting security updates and don't do major OS updates on that machine for the next decade. You and her can decide which DE, either Gnome (more mac-like) or Budgie, Mate, or KDE (more windows-like. Those are my win-like preferences in that order)
I read this post as along the lines of: "Isn't it a shame that even if you don't use instagram because of privacy issues, it is so pervasive in modern society that you will end up on it regardless"
Instagram almost certainly do facial recognition/tracking on a huge scale, and due to the popularity of instagram it's practically impossible to opt out of it.
Spotify algorithm pushes artists that pay them to push them to you. Get your recommendations via more organic means if you can. That means blogs, real people. Screw the spotify recommendation slop (and I say this as someone who has spotify premium.)
I reckon if you showed the picture of the giraffe to a human and asked what's wrong with it, many people wouldn't notice anything "off" about its coat.
The only multiplayer game I really play is Team Fortress 2. I learnt the mechanics over a decade ago and I understand it. My reflexes aren't amazing, but I "get it". I can't be bothered to learn any new multiplayer game mechanics, so when I want to get online and play a shooter I go for TF2.
Coop games are another matter, but yeah, TF2. My desire to play it comes and goes, but it's always there waiting for me.
Music-wise:
Radio stations "oh but the radio sucks" yeah but online radio stations don't. They don't have any ads. Start with NTS 1 and 2 and go from there. Last.fm browsing USER pages. RYM user pages. Online music guides written by real people. Recommendations from friends- real people.
Video-wise:
I honestly don't watch youtubers. Their output and quality isn't up to snuff. No I don't care about speedruns, about "internet rabbit holes" about any of that. About people restoring old gear. About basically anything. So I watch actual TV shows and actual movies, and you guessed it, I get those recommendations from REAL PEOPLE.
I deleted my original comment cos I felt it was a little negative but somehow that didn't propagate across the fediverse.. weird!
This doesn't have anything to do with privacy.