https://usilenie-plus.translate.goog/2016/google-plz/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Then get a regular debit card, like most people.

deleted by creator

The world in general switched from Firefox to Chrome several years ago because at that time (when just released) Chrome was new, shiny, and fast (much faster than Firefox). And at that time everyone loved Google (they still had their infamous “be no evil” motto). And Google also promoted their browser, and, given their web resources are immensely popular, that helped tremendously.

That switch had nothing to do with recent concerns about privacy in Mozilla products.

The Umbrella Academy: in the first couple of episodes like nothing happens and everyone is very sad.

You have the bootloader, the initramfs, the boot procedure, systemd, PID 1, you can check the logs, you have all those little things that make the system work

Windows has pretty much the same concepts. These two books talk about all that in deep:

https://www.microsoftpressstore.com/store/windows-internals-part-1-system-architecture-processes-9780735684188

https://www.microsoftpressstore.com/store/windows-internals-part-2-9780135462409

Also check out this one: https://leanpub.com/perfbook

23 all year round

Yes, do that! And note that on a number of email service providers you can add both domains to the same mailbox.

Just don’t use a domain name containing your surname - register a different one.

how to deal with whois lookup privacy?

Any decent domain registrar provides WHOIS privacy for free (just note that that might not be available for .eu domain names). Additionally you can always use fake data on your account, but in this case you might lose your domain if they decide to check it.

other issues I may run into if I chose my own domain

When registering a domain, always look at the renewal price: often the first year costs relatively low, but after that there’s a steep price increase.

As for an email hosting service, in addition to the ones you specified in your post, I suggest you to look at migadu.com.

They do give you an option to customize OS components. But this feature isn’t targeted to home users but to enterprises and OEM manufacturera

This isn’t a Windows issue - this is an Office issue