Actually, I have. It gives me better tracking protection than vanilla Safari, it allows me to use SearXNG, and it means I can set a custom homepage. Also, for some reason, Safari has no private mode on my phone.
Not to mention that Mozilla is working on a Gecko-based version of the browser, as Apple is being forced by the EU to allow sideloading, third-party app stores, and third-party browser engines.
Would it be possible to blacklist Threads, but also whitelist specific accounts? I don't want any more to do with Meta than I already do, but I'd also like some way of sending questions into The Last Leg.
Whoever said Linux was hard to use was either a Windows/macOS shill, a Gentoo noob, or said it back in the '90s or 2000s when Linux was mostly quite hard to use.
Use ADB to remove Google and Samsung bloatware and tracking. Ask around for help.
You should be able to use Heimdall to unlock the bootloader, but there isn't currently a build of LineageOS or DivestOS for this phone, so unfortunately you cannot yet flash a custom ROM (AFAIK). However, rooting should work if you need this (although it can hurt your security a bit).
I'd recommend removing Google Play Services and replacing it with microG, although this may be complicated.
The best solution, however, is probably to exchange the phone for a more versatile model, such as a Google Pixel or a Fairphone.
Mint was my first distro, too. Some videos from ExplainingComputers and Switched To Linux (before he was a bigot) got me interested in the distro, and then my uncle gave me an old ThinkPad and a DVD of Linux Mint 19.2 "Tessa".
After that, I installed Linux on all of my computers. I switched to Debian, then Fedora, then distrohopped for a bit before landing on my current configuration:
Garnet: openSUSE Tumbleweed with KDE Plasma
Amethyst: Arch Linux with Sway (possibly soon to be Void with Qtile)
The first FOSS product I ever used would have been either Firefox or OpenOffice.org, back in ~2010. I also used to like VLC.
The product that got me to go almost exclusively FOSS, however, was Linux Mint. I installed it on an old ThinkPad that my uncle had given me in 2019, and I was immediately impressed that this twelve-year-old notebook with (at the time) 4GB of RAM and an Intel Centrino processor could now easily outperform my brand new HP (which ran Windows).
It was only about a year later when I installed Mint on my HP, followed by my old Acer (which had been on a shelf for the last two years), and most recently my 2007 MacBook (which I keep around because it's the only thing that can operate my scanner).
For people wanting to take down drones, I think a directed energy weapon would work. It uses a beam high frequency radio waves or microwaves to disable electronics. Since there's no projectile, it would be easier to use without getting caught.
I've made it work. I've set Tabliss as my homepage, and I'm using NextDNS to block ads and trackers.