You got great choices, actually. I’d only recommend to be as little dependent on multiple fronts on one company. So I’d change a few of Proton to something else. As long as Proton doesn’t replace their CEO with an explicitly antifascist one, I don’t know if they re a good spot.
Depending on how private communications must be, Threema might be better than Signal.
If you don’t need to synchronise with others and your threat model is not physical attacks/theft, then agendas can be just on paper. Same for the calendar.
As for distro…
Mint is great (and honestly what I’d rec for people brand new to Linux). If you want to harden privacy/security more though, the following Linux distros might be better:
Fedora (any of them). It’s an international upstream distro from Red Hat (American company, parent company is IBM). In other words, it’s developed by the community, which is gathered in the Fedora Project. Their headquarters is in NC, USA. Red Hat then uses the community distro to make their own distro, and in return, finances Fedora. Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, uses it. If he trusts it, I trust it.
OpenSUSE Tumbleweed -, developed by the OpenSUSE community, backed by OpenSUSE from Germany. Pretty good all-arounder.
Arch Linux, developed internationally, but most devs are spread across Europe. Has an extensive wiki (that also is good for other distros), though it’s not exactly “plug and play” and I’d rec it only if you know what you’re doing.
Debian is another option if privacy is less of a concern for you, than it being FOSS. It’s one of the most FOSS distros out there, and also highly independent and international.
I assume you want to use your distro as daily driver, and that your threat model isn’t too severe. So the above ones should suffice.
If the threat model calls for it, or you’re willing to sacrifice some usability for slightly more security, you could try QubesOS (arguably one of the most secure distros since it sandboxes everything as if they were a separate computer). Tails is another alternative, that’s on a USB and forgets itself after usage.
For search engines…
… go for Qwant (French) or Ecosia (German). Both are European-owned and are busy constructing their own indexes (currently they still use Bing and Google). There’s Mojeek (UK-based) which is independent.
I don’t know how to block specific sites from popping up on them though, since I notice a certain trillionnaire’s personal ““wiki”” pops up a LOT. Probably he’s cheating and search bumping to spread his desinformation. It should be blocked.
Presearch also exists, which is decentralised and uses its own indexes. If you want OSS, there’s SearXNG and YaCy which have metasearch options. Be careful in which instance you pick, though.
Lol very true, Ive been using Mint for maybe 7 years now, Ive tried Arch 3 times or more, broke evey single time ive used it. And that’s with me not doing anything out of the ordinary. (No hate to Arch btw, I just can’t figure it out)
Ecosia has a terrible privacy policy, I analysed it in the past. They are likely in violation of the GDPR, I’m currently considering to file a complaint, they’re still a lot better than Google though, but DDG is privacy-wise superior.
Network effect is the biggest problem for messaging services, and so I would still push for Signal over the alternatives that are technically better. This guide seems like it is focussed on users who are new to the space
I agree with the Linux recommendation, but I’d offer CachyOS over pure Arch for newcomers. The limine bootloader gives a lot of peace of mind, since you can tell the user “if you get a bad update, reboot and pick an older option on the first screen”.
Adding my personal notes on search engines here for anyone’s interest. I personally use Qwant on Desktop and DuckDuckGo on mobile. I like Qwant because they are at least working on their own index and are EU-based. On the other hand, DuckDuckGo is faster and has a more comprehensive privacy policy. I’m really trying to use Mojeek on mobile but the search results are much worse than DuckDuckGo and Qwant in my repeated experience.
another thing is that the Trumpist US regime allegedly got access to Signal through Israeli spyware (Paragon), or is trying to do so. (The Guardian)
The Swiss military also has publicly shifted away from Signal, as they deemed it unsafe for communications. Signal’s still subject to the CLOUD Act, while Threema is not. (Bleeping Computer).
You got great choices, actually. I’d only recommend to be as little dependent on multiple fronts on one company. So I’d change a few of Proton to something else. As long as Proton doesn’t replace their CEO with an explicitly antifascist one, I don’t know if they re a good spot.
Depending on how private communications must be, Threema might be better than Signal.
If you don’t need to synchronise with others and your threat model is not physical attacks/theft, then agendas can be just on paper. Same for the calendar.
As for distro…
Mint is great (and honestly what I’d rec for people brand new to Linux). If you want to harden privacy/security more though, the following Linux distros might be better:
I assume you want to use your distro as daily driver, and that your threat model isn’t too severe. So the above ones should suffice.
If the threat model calls for it, or you’re willing to sacrifice some usability for slightly more security, you could try QubesOS (arguably one of the most secure distros since it sandboxes everything as if they were a separate computer). Tails is another alternative, that’s on a USB and forgets itself after usage.
For search engines…
… go for Qwant (French) or Ecosia (German). Both are European-owned and are busy constructing their own indexes (currently they still use Bing and Google). There’s Mojeek (UK-based) which is independent.
I don’t know how to block specific sites from popping up on them though, since I notice a certain trillionnaire’s personal ““wiki”” pops up a LOT. Probably he’s cheating and search bumping to spread his desinformation. It should be blocked.
Presearch also exists, which is decentralised and uses its own indexes. If you want OSS, there’s SearXNG and YaCy which have metasearch options. Be careful in which instance you pick, though.
SecureBlue also looks decent and brings some of the security hardening used in GrapheneOS
There is exactly zero privacy upside to be gained by moving from Mint to Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE or Arch.
Qubes and Tails may give you an edge, but add quite dramatic convenience costs. Unless you have a very specific threat model, this is overkill.
You can break anything quite easily on arch if you don’t know what you’re doing, including security.
Lol very true, Ive been using Mint for maybe 7 years now, Ive tried Arch 3 times or more, broke evey single time ive used it. And that’s with me not doing anything out of the ordinary. (No hate to Arch btw, I just can’t figure it out)
Ecosia has a terrible privacy policy, I analysed it in the past. They are likely in violation of the GDPR, I’m currently considering to file a complaint, they’re still a lot better than Google though, but DDG is privacy-wise superior.
Network effect is the biggest problem for messaging services, and so I would still push for Signal over the alternatives that are technically better. This guide seems like it is focussed on users who are new to the space
I agree with the Linux recommendation, but I’d offer CachyOS over pure Arch for newcomers. The limine bootloader gives a lot of peace of mind, since you can tell the user “if you get a bad update, reboot and pick an older option on the first screen”.
Last time I tried qwant they don’t serve Taiwan, which is one of the points I VPN to that I cycle
I haven’t tried many other countries.
So just a head’s up to anybody reading.
Adding my personal notes on search engines here for anyone’s interest. I personally use Qwant on Desktop and DuckDuckGo on mobile. I like Qwant because they are at least working on their own index and are EU-based. On the other hand, DuckDuckGo is faster and has a more comprehensive privacy policy. I’m really trying to use Mojeek on mobile but the search results are much worse than DuckDuckGo and Qwant in my repeated experience.
Why is Threema better than Signal?
See here - secure messaging apps
another thing is that the Trumpist US regime allegedly got access to Signal through Israeli spyware (Paragon), or is trying to do so. (The Guardian)
The Swiss military also has publicly shifted away from Signal, as they deemed it unsafe for communications. Signal’s still subject to the CLOUD Act, while Threema is not. (Bleeping Computer).
See here why the link you shared isn’t a good source:
https://soatok.blog/2025/07/07/checklists-are-the-thief-of-joy/
And learn more about Threema vs. Signal:
https://soatok.blog/2021/11/05/threema-three-strikes-youre-out/
The signal one suggests it’s a phone OS hack that can open apps so could probably do threema too.
The article you shared suggested it’s likely the result of lobbying by the company so they use a company inside the country.
Yeah looking at it I had the same thought. Il look into Threema, thanks!