By definition an email server is not under your control, so the question of whether or not it runs FOSS is a bit moot and in any case impossible to verify.

In terms of privacy-respecting email hosting, Proton, Posteo, and Mailbox all spring to mind.

Looks great, well done.

Personally, the deb-related annoyance that I have encountered most often in recent years is that there is an APT repo but I have to jump thru hoops to add it. An example is signal-desktop, where the handy one-click installation goes like this:

# 1. Install our official public software signing key:
wget -O- https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | gpg --dearmor > signal-desktop-keyring.gpg
cat signal-desktop-keyring.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg > /dev/null

# 2. Add our repository to your list of repositories:
echo 'deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main' |\
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list

# 3. Update your package database and install Signal:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop

Why does Debian-Ubuntu not provide a simple command for this? Yes there is add-apt-repository but for some reason it doesn't deal with keys. I've had to deal with this PITA on multiple occasions, what's up with this?

Sure, but in that case the default encryption could easily be switched off for multiple-drive setups. Basically, the default setting is what's important.

Ha! Just checked and it turns out this is the exact line that's already in my screenshot script. Which apparently I pilfered without trying very hard to understand - as usual! Can confirm it works great.

I wish I could wall myself off from

Well this is at least honest!

Perhaps it's a personality thing. Perhaps generational. Technically I'm a member of a minority community but I've never defined myself by that, and "hate" in the contemporary sense (I think its meaning has drifted unhelpfully) is not something that especially bothers me. My experience is that most people are well-meaning, so I tend to be intrigued by the question of why they think the things they do.

Anyway, this is not a debate with a single correct answer. It is of course your right to shut out whoever you want, I won't question that.

Intriguing, thanks.

its just never on by default

Except PopOS, as I understand it. IMO that is a major point in its favor and against its competitors, given the dominance of laptops today. I see no reason why this is still opt-in, rather than opt-out as on mobile OSs.

Assuming that "bigots" is not a synonym for "anyone I disagree with", then fair enough.

My underlying point is that technology is making it very easy to wall ourselves off into comfortable echo chambers. Some are even calling that "safety". From my understanding of history, this looks like an obviously slippery and dangerous slope to be on.

But if are talking about what most of your fellow citizens would also identify as "bigots", then fair enough.

Sort of. Essentially I am saying that in a democracy we need to talk to each other, and sticking one's fingers in one's ears and chanting "lalalala I can't hear you" seems like a poor way to go about that. These people can vote too. Like it or not, you have an interest in understanding what makes them tick and what might help them to see the world in a way more conducive to you.

Alas no but from your screenshot I learned all about grim. Thanks!

Completely agree. I had no idea how bad this phenomenon was until very recently, when I fell foul of a virtual lynch mob and its political-commissar mod who behaved like a religious inquisitor even in private conversation. It's real.

The problem with this approach is that your peeps won't see any reason to go there if it's the same as the R-site only exponentially less popular.

There needs to be an understandable USP.

Perhaps: "But without ads. Ever. Anywhere." Works for me and I know what an ad-blocker is, unlike a ton of normies.