Drunk & Root

i used to use startpage before switching to searxng and its pretty good just the mobile app they beckon you to download is garbage and just chromium with a startpage paint job over it but if you just want the search engine for another browser its prob one the best

i use gentoo because i love the package manager and how in control i am of my desktop and for servers even though not linux ive been using open bsd because of secure it is and lightweight helps squeeze out little bit more performance from mt shit vps lol

synapse can be resource intensive but u can conduwuit or now tuwunel and its pretty lightweight https://github.com/girlbossceo/conduwuit https://github.com/matrix-construct/tuwunel

for vpn super generic but Mullvad or if you can you can self host a vpn youtube music has some apps over on Fdroid like musify

the icons are not for every app but i dont know if you can chsnge for default apps. the camera is pretty good has good zoom diff modes etc. battery is pretty good lasts the whole day. the sandboxed services are great most apps work you will have “GmsCompat” running when play services is. and some apps still wont work with the sandboxed play services like Gwallet and the multiple users are a very great tool if you need to run non-free software.

im pretty sure they turned over ip of a french activist (not 100% sure) and when i was checking them out there tor mirror just linked to the clearnet site wich put me off so based on your threat model they can be ok

i mean cant go wrong with a self hosted matrix instance im pretty sure theres some managed hosts that make the process eaiser i dont know if this is what your looking for but cant go wrong with it

i run my own instance and i can vouch the results are great for general things. searching for things based on location can vary though.