While I agree, but i tried Brave Search for a few weeks, and it seemed pretty good.
I wouldnt use Brave Browser, because Vivaldi is there (if you need Chromium.) But for a search engine which is free? DuckDuckGo maybe?
P.S. Kagi search is pretty good if you are willing to pay.
Ohh, I havent thought about backing it up with Syncthing! Thank you!
If you need a UI to have albums and share them then yes, the previously mentioned Immich. I host it as well, and it is truly awesome.
One caveat though: it is still pretty early in development, there might be breaking changes. For example a few weeks ago you needed to update the docker compose file because they changed dependencies.
Even if you agree with something, you can play the ‘devils advocate’ and say what is wrong. You need to look at both sides.
I for example despise Apple. But i gotta admit their phones are pretty good if you just want a smartphone. Or if everything you have is apple, then the ecosystem is really nice.
Try to understand the other side, and be the opposing person. So these conversations can happen.