I feel like its pretty great. The additional VPN connections are nice and you can set it up on your router too.

SimpleLogin is the biggest benefit from the email options for sure. Unlimited aliases plus you can setup unique domains which then allow you to make email addresses up on the fly.

Drive now syncing with photos on smart phones is super nice. Also awesome to be able to share files from Drive to anyone. You can set passwords and/or time frames for the link access too.

I’m staying with Bitwarden + Aegis as it seems like too much of my data in one place using Pass for passwords and 2FA.

Calendar is cool, nice knowing it’s setup with zero-knowledge encryption. You can also share events with folks that use any calendar.

With the Standard Notes news, I’m hoping this will result in having some of the bells and whistles that Standard Notes gives paying customers. But I haven’t found anything regarding this so far.

All in all, it’s worth the price for sure. All security focused with the ability to make it the backbone of your online privacy too.

Great list, this post is getting saved without question! I don’t see Kolourpaint though, which is a great FOSS digital art program. I’d say it should be added to the list as it’s my go to for light weight photo editing. Also, Obsidian isn’t FOSS, which may not be what your looking for specifically as it has a free option. I prefer Standard Notes as it’s FOSS and great for managing notes privately across devices.

It’s always dependent on the time of day, as the more folks in your local area connecting to the local node will slow down everyones speed. Are you using a free VPN or do you pay for the service? This can drastically impact the speed as the number of Proton users on the server you’re using also can reduce your speed.

Alternatively, do you use a DNS to filter BS connections only there for tracking? Paying for the VPN + using NextDNS to stop unwanted connections has resulted with my speeds being a minimum of 3MB with a max around 150MB. I have a 300MB connection, but the time of day, DNS filtering, as well as routing through a VPN all influence your speed. Thankfully these speeds are more than enough for my use case and also add to my ability to have online anonymity.

Edit: I use the official client but use the WiFi settings in Fedora to connect to my DNS server. There’s also a setting to increase speeds in the Proton client, maybe give that a shot too if you don’t have it turned on.

While it’s not an eReader, Alexandria in F-Droid is amazing. It allows you to download books from LibGen as well as convert the books into a different format if needed for whatever eReader you select. Definitely a nice app to pair with your new eReader!

I haven’t had any major issues at all, it’s been great all in all. I run Proton’s VPN and NextDNS on my devices as well as router too.

Are people you follow and who follow you really friends or is it primarily just about increasing the amount of followers? I’ve never had any social media aside from MySpace, but I consider my friends as family. Sure, I bet a lot of Instagram accounts have more followers than I have friends, but we’re all stoked to know one another and it has nothing to do with appearances.

I text and call my friends just to chat way more often then to hang. It’s definitely a little bit of both, but I stay in touch regularly using signal. I’m an oddity these days for sure, yet it’s still an option and way more private vs social media.

Well, urine is sterile, and if only touch the door in and out of the bathroom, washing doesn’t always seem necessary. If you get pee on your hands, then by all means. But if the only option is air blades for hand drying, you’re better off not washing. Those literally lace your hands in fecal matter when used in a public restroom.

Other peoples fecal matter will contain many forigen bacteria, and these microbes are proven to coat the hands of people after using air driers. My apologies about the sterile urine comment. Nonetheless, you’d be in a better situation with bacteria on your hands from your own pee vs from a strangers feces. One’s apart of your microbiota, while the other is entirely foreign. IDK, I’ve seen many cases where washing your hands after a piss made no sense due to cleanliness issues or a lack of a sink and never heard anyone around ever having any issues. Yet many pathogens are spread via the fecal oral route. So I’ll take my chances of maybe having some of my urine vs having someone else shit on my hands everytime in that situation.

I told folks to start buying masks in March 2020 and found a new gig as the one I had didn’t enforce any mask requirements. But I’m also a backpacker who knows bacteria and the immune system pretty well. I don’t read much research on urine, so again, please forgive that oversight. But funny how people aren’t easily categorized, ah?