I switched to grapheneos on pixel 9 straight from iPhone. The only reason I have any google stuff on the phone is because of RCS messaging. There is literally nothing I have any issues with on this phone, software or hardware. It has been a very smooth and comfortable transition. I very much recommend giving it a try. I think you’d be surprised how little google (exclusively) gives, compared to how much they take.

I like KDE and xfce. My hardware is pretty old so I appreciate how light xfce is, but I like KDE connect too.

They are starting to test opt-out telemetry and from what I read, it sounded pretty invasive. I’m no tech genius though so I’d check the links in that other comment.

I started on mint a couple months ago and so far I’ve tried as many distros as I could find. I liked manjaro but then found out about their controversies so I’m currently on endeavour os. Half of the fun for me has been experimenting with different desktops and whatnot, which has gotten me back into computer stuff.