Honestly I see no use for the ai response in search as it is hard to trust 100% but I do see that it could become a requirement for a search engine

Proton VPN is good and has a good free plan, but os doesn’t matter when choosing a VPN

Probably every comment but install linux

Could set up a nextcloud instance, but might be a bit overkill for your use case as it is a full Google workspace replacement

Antennapod is good

Also using Niagara launcher Wallpaper is my own picture, icon pack is articons

I would recommend proton drive as a great replacement if you want something that doesn’t need a server