Use Xtra if on Android!
Mullvad is better imo, unless you need port forwarding. I'm currently using Proton since I pay for Unlimited for that encrypted drive space, and using their VPN saves me money since I just think of the payment as just for Proton Drive. This is a change I made just a few days ago though, for about a year I've paid for both Proton Unlimited and Mullvad, and I legitimately prefer Mullvad over Proton, it just made sense for me to switch money wise. Can't really go wrong between the two imo.
The update functionality for older versions to upgrade to the new version will be released a few weeks after the iso release of Linux Mint 22. It'll be an available upgrade in the Software Update Center application.
I use Privacy Friendly versions of Sudoku and Minesweeper on the F-Droid store. I also really enjoy Nonograms (aka Picross), and haven't found a good foss app for it, but the app "nonograms.com" has been a good experience for me. I paid like $5 for the ad free version and that's been it, nothing else.
Did you read the post you replied to? They said financially liable. Read through the quote you responded with and tell us where they are held financially liable. They are (rightfully) mad that it's the taxpayers that are effectively paying out the settlement instead of the police force.
I'm currently using searx.be with good results
This reading actually helped me understand calculus a bit better, thanks for sharing!
Fossify Gallery and Files are already up on F-Droid!
You can in fact change the handler to NewPipe! Navigate in your settings to wherever your screen is that shows you a list of all your apps. Navigate to YouTube (assuming you have that installed, skip this step if you don't have it installed), and find the "Open by default" option (might be named differently depending on your Android provider), and disallow the option to open supported links. Now go back to your apps list and find whatever NewPipe application you use (I use the Sponsorblock fork for instance), click the "Open by default" option again, make sure it's enabled, then there should be a list of links supported. For the types of links you want supported, make sure they have a check box by it, and you should be good!
Can you possibly go more in depth or provide a source that goes more in depth on how to do this? Very interested in doing this
It depends on what exactly you're looking for in a messenger. If you are able to get people onto a specific platform, go with something like Signal, that's your best case scenario.
If you're unable to do that though, and need SMS/MMS, you have options. QUIK is an app I highly recommend for SMS and MMS. The big downside, however, is that RCS is seemingly exclusive to Google Messenger on Android. If you want to use RCS, you're kind of stuck unfortunately.
To minimize needing to use it, you could buy an old iPhone, jailbreak it, and try and set up Beeper Mini on an android device. That's what I do at least, which helps quite a bit. It's finicky and just not perfect, but it's better than just using SMS/MMS.
Hopefully this comment covers your use case and you're able to get some useful info out of it.