It’s been close to 10 months since I fully switched to Linux. I am running Arch on all of my devices. Server, laptop and desktop. Desktop I have borked few times, but no worries since I dont store any critical data on the drive. Only OS because of this. I know I will bork it in future too, but I like to learn new things and Linux is the best choice for that.

Convinced my gf to also switch to Linux, but we are still trying to find a more stable distro for her. I feel like installing Fedora or MX Linux for her.

Just use SearXNG.

Krunner is great.

Just downloaded and installed Organic Maps from F-Droid. Looks really nice.

Way too expensive.

Start with Mint and use flatpaks. You will be all set.