I mean my only comment would be that starting off with zero third party exposure is probably starting with a higher level of difficulty. Id recommend picking popular solutions (so there’s lots of guides / videos) and then over time as you build skill set around problem solving / maintenance etc you can move to more fully self hosted services ?

This sounds very wise, enthusiasm to correct is much stronger than to generate. I’ll start throwing some things together… but there’s a bit skill gap

Yeah the content generation is definitely not my forte , my idea of a strong password is P@ssword. I think definitely a link aggregate would be the lowest hanging fruit. But looking at the limited engagement on the post it might not be of interest to the community. I need to work on my security knowledge anyway so I’ll chip away at something. If it eventuates I might raise it again in 6-12 months

I initially switched to see if I could revive my old laptop, it used to take 15-20 minutes before it was even usable on startup, now it’s about 2. I use my computer for everything, some home labbing , simple CAD work

I personally wouldn’t go as far as to call it a blessing… But mint was a super easy transition from windows for me. I’ve only had one issue where it locked up on login. Granted that’s fairly major but I was able to roll it back after a cheeky search engine review.