I used Qwant years ago, but don't remember why I stopped. Maybe they introduced ads like Google, or something more annoying. But it's not 100% european, they use Google and Bing engines (just like most private search engines) to show you results. Also, there are some articles talking about how sketchy it really is (French government public funding, links with Chinese companies, and more).
About Vivaldi, it depends on your devices. In my experience, Vivaldi for Android works fine on weak hardware, faster than Brave and Firefox, but slower than Chrome. Using it on PC always was a headache, it's the worst optimized browser I've used. They care more about productivity features than performance or privacy. It can feel bloated.
I understand your concerns about headquarters and privacy. I think the strongest european options for browsing and searching are Vivaldi and Qwant, but remember to try them before switching.

I used their AI for months, until I read a comparison between multiple AIs and I found out it gave bad results. I thought all of them were very stubborn giving the same wrong answer all the time, but ChatGPT changed my mind. Now I can't even imagine such ineffective tool having access to sensitive information like emails.

Windows 7 users are switching to forks that still support the OS, like r3dfox, Pale Moon, Mypal, and Supermium. Home users stuck with 7 and 8 probably won't upgrade or try Linux, they didn't even update to 10 for some reason (and it was free!) .

Did you try OnlyOffice? I heard it has good compatibility with Microsoft Office's files, it's available on almost every OS, and looks easy to use. However, I'm not sure if you can create very complex documents like with Office.

I think it all depends on your PC usage and if you have money to pay for an AV.

• If you only browse the Internet, I suggest you get an AV browser extension/add-on + an adblocker.
• Disable unnecessary permissions (specially notifications!).
• Change your DNS to another that protects from malware (Cloudflare and Adguard have a special DNS for this).
• Always delete cookies on exit.
• If you frequently download files, you can scan them with VirusTotal and ClamAV.
• When you want to execute a program you don't fully trust, a VM or Firejail will let you run it without harming your real machine (good idea if you fear getting a RAT through WINE).

I learned all of this using Windows, and you can adapt it to any OS. All of my recommendations are meant exclusively for security, keep in mind that some of them are not the best for privacy.

But the only way to get full and annoying real time protection with all the typical antivirus tools on Linux, is paying an AV subscription. Most AV suites for Linux are developed for servers, I'm not sure if an active plan for home users exists. Just remember, it all depends on your PC usage.

The most annoying bloatware I found on a laptop is HP Analytics. Its only purpose is to get data from you and sell it. It works in the background and you only notice it because the laptop is slow for unknown reasons. To "delete it", you must disable its service. If you want, you can change its folders permissions so you can delete them as admin. But it will install itself again in a few weeks and you will have to remove it once more, unless you never update Windows and drivers. HP Analytics works like a malware, but antivirus won't detect it. And you can find this on every HP modern laptop, so it's very common.

I'm glad nobody is mentioning WhatsApp as an alternative. They released usernames a few months ago, all messages are end-to-end encrypted, will add voice and video calls to WhatsApp Web, many people and companies have an account there already... It would be an easy migration, but awful for privacy. Thankfully, the most similar suggestions I found were Telegram and Signal.

I joined Lemmy for the same reason. After creating 4 accounts on Reddit and getting all of them shadow banned, I gave up. The only realistic way to use it is creating a new account without VPN, but I don't know if you can still get banned for "ban evasion".

Roblox is asking for the same thing to use chat in-game, but they split people in age groups (9-12, 18-20…), and you can only talk to players in your age group.

Now Discord users are furious and canceling Nitro. I wonder where they will go if the update gets released.

Now Discord users are furious and canceling Nitro. I wonder where they will go if the update gets released.