I have a degoogled phone (LineageOS) and I was able to get my banking apps working by isolating them in a work profile using Insular and also putting MicroG and Aurora Store in there. MicroG tricks the apps into thinking you are connected to Google Play Services. IMO its better than having a 2nd or 3rd phone.

I installed ZorinOS recently. For a basic user its a great distro. It is preinstalled with Brave and LibreOffice. Easy to use DE.  There would be no need to touch the terminal.

I am running Adguard Home and I was able to set that up via the App Manager. Not bad.

I needed a terminal for Docker, but most everyday users won’t require that.

https://www.xda-developers.com/feed/

There are unfortunately going to be aspects of your life where you have to use Google. School, and later your job being major ones. If your teacher/boss says you have to use Google, you are going to use Google. With much love for the teachers, many are not good with technology and the convenience of Google makes their job easier.

Like many of us do at our jobs, just use Google to the minimum extent possible and try to minimize the personal information you give to Google. Then you can live the De-Google life in your free time.

This is probably not the answer you wanted, but it’s the practical one. Sometimes being the one person going against the grain can put a target on your back and you don’t want to get on the teacher’s bad side.

Of course, if your teacher is open to allowing you to use other tools, that’s great. I just wouldn’t get your hopes up.

TIL about Block Select!

Have you tried using the Sessions feature in Kate? It allows you to pick up where you left off, even between multiple projects.

The Simple Path To Wealth

The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins advocates for financial independence through simple investing strategies, primarily focusing on low-cost index funds to build wealth over time. Collins emphasizes the importance of saving, effective budgeting, and maintaining a long-term perspective to achieve financial freedom without relying on complex financial schemes.

Freetube is great. It accesses Youtube privately.

For Gmail – I use Thunderbird for both Android and Desktop (linux) to access my Gmail. I’m sure they are still reading my emails on the server side, but at least the phone app isn’t tracking me 🤣

I use qBitController to manage downloads on my home computer from my Android device.

Do you want something to download onto your android device? I thought LibreTorrent was fine 🤷

Linus Tech Tips did an exposé on those boxes a few years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vpepaQ-VQQ