Honestly you can get iterm2, zsh and oh-my-zsh installed in like <10mins and have a great looking terminal that you never have to mess with again it’s not really a newbie overhead.

Relevant Tom Scott video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdmQp9M9jUo

Since I assume all the org fans will be in here, does anyone have any recommendations for non-emacs org systems (on Linux desktop)? I don't want to relearn every keybinding, but I love the concept of a simple text-based organizational format with good editor support.

Meanwhile, a lot of users really can't trust their ISP: your "ISP" might be coffee shop, or someone renting on AirBNB, or your friend (as you are at their home or office). If you are in any of these circumstances, I would probably first recommend "tether off your phone or something", but if you are finding yourself needing or merely wanting to use someone else's internet connection (maybe for speed or because you don't have a good cell signal), it totally makes sense to use a VPN.

(Also: I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet, as maybe it is somehow "gauche" to do so, but one of the top reasons people use VPNs around the world is because they want to browse porn and they don't want people around them to know. At some point, the people in the apartment next door to me figured out my wi-fi password and seemingly felt the correct solution to this issue was to use me for their porn browsing, but it was then all the more awkward when I figured out why my network was slow and knew all of the porn sites they were browsing. Most people seem more OK with the idea of paying a company like ExpressVPN--even if they are legitimately run by "spies"--to be their dedicated porn access point than hoping that someone else more locally won't find out what sites they are browsing.)