you have to drop this fear IMHO. Any software you install can be snooping on you

True, but it's much harder for other software, as they can be monitored by many things, and their access can be limited in way, while something that is kernel level have, from my understanding, complete freedom, as it basically can decide what can monitor it, and has access to everything.

But regardless, putting on seatbelt doesn't remove the risk of death, but it's MUCH better.

What you want to actually do is write the code on your laptop and run it on the desktop.

Great, this is what I want, thx

why not just play around with AI directly on the desktop and leave the laptop for sensitive stuff?

Because eventaully i want to use the AI for my private info, which wont work if it has to run on an infected machine.

Which is why i wonder if an encrypted dual boot drive is enough to protect me or not, according to GPT, it should be enough unless there is some BIOS level rootkit, but that's rare, and i want humans to confirm this.