syncthing to sync your notes folder (and your pictures, audiobooks, whatevers); then the editors can be anything, i.e. whatever you prefer on each platform. sync over the internet can be disabled and set so it works only on your home LAN. also, sync direction, maybe you want it to sync only one way. turn on versioning to get at the version from two weeks ago. etc.

you should be in the know by now to not get locked in by any one provider or app. always go with the thing that gives you exit options.

I don’t think that’s correct as I’ve registered a fresh account as described, during the setup phase of a phone, within the last month and no phone number was needed. I’ll give you the benefit of doubt as I don’t want to do that again just to disprove a stranger on the internet, but if anything changed it had to change in this very, very recent period.

edit: the posit of OP was to open an account in order to be able to register to other accounts, not go jasonbourne on 5eyes and friends.

I ain’t got none of those and this is/was the only way you can open a gmail account without a phone number; as posited in OP, this is to be used only to register to stuff, not use it as a comms medium.

get your old android phone, no phone # needed. install lineageos + gapps. go to some public wifi spot. register a fresh gmail account. jot the login down somewhere. reset/wipe your phone. you’re done.

I’d rather stop communicating altogether than do anything that involves interacting with shitcoins in any shape or form.

the dev vibecodes; I make a distinction between using the crap as a boilerplate helper and a full-blown agentic “hey computer, do this but do it super-good!”. not only that, they got a super-asshole vibe as they removed claude traces from the repo and then flaunted that it’s so people won’t know what parts were vibeshat. “good luck finding the cutoff point”, I’m paraphrasing here.

to each their own, but that’s a hard pass for that fork from me.

if you were looking for an excuse to torpedo this abomination, here it is. hosting this gargantuan stack just for an encrypted csv file? at least the client (electron) gobbles up RAM like it’s free while being bug-compatible with whatever chrome version was current half a year ago.

sadly, news ain’t great on the other side of the fence - keepassXC dev is all-in on vibeshitting; latest non-polluted version is 2.7.9.; works fine and the stuff they’re working on is pretty far from essential. some unknown folks forked it but who’s to say what their expertise is.

never thought I’d disable my autoupdate timers but here we are. keep your eyes open.

eOS to lineageOS is like Ubuntu to Debian; a more newb-oriented solution with some stuff preinstalled but with less choices; e.g. you can’t switch out the iOS-like launcher. if you know your way around, you’re wasting your time with eOS. but if it’s for a less technically adept user, you might be doing them a favor with eOS. the murena suite can be opted out of.