Limited, tried it few times in a decade or so, used as a custom router for some years, then given up since for NixOS to have easy replication and much less hw issues.
> What are the pros & cons of using Open BSD?
IMVHO simplicity it's a pro, documentation is pretty well done, however hw support is limited and pkgs availability it's not that much. Being binary-centered instead of source centered like FreeBSD it's easier to maintain as long as you do not need much current software or non-official pkgs. The biggest cons for me is that's as most systems even today, it's not declarative.
> What laptop would run OpenBSD best?
I suggest only desktop hw, especially if you care about battery life.
> Was choosing OpenBSD over Trisquel (Trisquel is Stallman endorsed) a better choice for someone who is concerned about privacy & security?
IMVHO if you want something free in the GNU sense try Guix System, it's too much (IMO) focused on HPC instead of the desktop, but it's by far more rich, modern and have very good docs as well. Once you tried a declarative system you'll not go back to anything else.
About your requirements:
- security :: OpenBSD is very attentive, but it's community is way too little to keep up, so while formally "more secure", "more audited" than any GNU/Linux distro I do not consider much more "secure by default", and I do not consider "security-centered" distro more secure than mainstream ones... In general anything sold to be secure turn out to be much less secure than most else;
- usability :: as an embedded system OpenBSD is usable as long as the hw you have is supported, as a desktop well... IMO not much these days. Desktop needs vary much but...
- availability of important tools I use :: little community, less packages is always obvious. Guix have much more and could import NixOS packages (derivations) witch are along with Arch AUR the biggest repo existing today, but that does means not much, it's depend on which tools you use. Individual packages might be there community supported since years or not.
Limited, tried it few times in a decade or so, used as a custom router for some years, then given up since for NixOS to have easy replication and much less hw issues.
> What are the pros & cons of using Open BSD?
IMVHO simplicity it's a pro, documentation is pretty well done, however hw support is limited and pkgs availability it's not that much. Being binary-centered instead of source centered like FreeBSD it's easier to maintain as long as you do not need much current software or non-official pkgs. The biggest cons for me is that's as most systems even today, it's not declarative.
> What laptop would run OpenBSD best?
I suggest only desktop hw, especially if you care about battery life.
> Was choosing OpenBSD over Trisquel (Trisquel is Stallman endorsed) a better choice for someone who is concerned about privacy & security?
IMVHO if you want something free in the GNU sense try Guix System, it's too much (IMO) focused on HPC instead of the desktop, but it's by far more rich, modern and have very good docs as well. Once you tried a declarative system you'll not go back to anything else.
About your requirements:
- security :: OpenBSD is very attentive, but it's community is way too little to keep up, so while formally "more secure", "more audited" than any GNU/Linux distro I do not consider much more "secure by default", and I do not consider "security-centered" distro more secure than mainstream ones... In general anything sold to be secure turn out to be much less secure than most else;
- usability :: as an embedded system OpenBSD is usable as long as the hw you have is supported, as a desktop well... IMO not much these days. Desktop needs vary much but...
- availability of important tools I use :: little community, less packages is always obvious. Guix have much more and could import NixOS packages (derivations) witch are along with Arch AUR the biggest repo existing today, but that does means not much, it's depend on which tools you use. Individual packages might be there community supported since years or not.