If I would have been asked to choose one really useful piece of software on Windows it would be Agent Ransack. I use it to find strings in a bunch of files, even compressed ones. I believe it can do much more but I use it for this purpose on daily basis. There’s a paid version but the light one is free and does all I need. https://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/

Do you have a list of products / companies they own? I would happily make use of that list.

My native language is German but I lived in Spain for a long time and there they call them “nubes”, clouds.

I have settled with Navidrome. It is not a native app but is quite fast and responsive and I can combine it with Ultrasonic to stream my music from anywhere to my phone. And you browse your collection by album covers which you mentioned as your preference.

I will object on this one. Even if the majority of user does not care about privacy they do care about ransomware , viruses, speed of the system and in my opinion Linux / BSD is secure, fast and speed remains after time not like Windows where I felt that after 6 months I had to reinstall to get a performant system. I guess it is all about convincing your family and friends about those benefits.

There was no special reason for switching 25 years ago. A friend of mine used Debian and I tried it out. Not being a gamer must have helped because if you like playing, chances to encounter a game that only runs on Windows are quite high.

Now the reason why I never changed back. Once the system runs, which may take some rime depending on how customized you want it, it always runs the same way. I never had a slowing down due to updates. Another reason may be not having to think about viruses or malware. Never had it and most likely never will. Antivirus? They may exist for Linux but I have never used them.

In a few words. It just works.

I have been using Debian for about 20 years now. Server and desktop. But I recently migrated all my server stuff to FreeBSD and I don’t think I will move back. Jails are great and provide me a convenient way to isolate my apps. On the desktop side I will stay with Debian.

I read my news mostly on my phone and use spaRSS for that. It’s quite simple, lightweight and fast and does the job. You can find it on F-Droid

I’m using OVH for a few years now and can’t complain. Had a a few DDOS attacks on my two vserver and they mitigated and informed me swiftly by mail. And their prices are competitive.