SimpleLogin has a free tier, which is limited to 15 aliases. But if you have a paid Proton subscription, you can connect your SimpleLogin account and you get the premium version.
+1 for NetBird
Why would they shut it down? That wouldn't make any sense whatsoever.
I recommend building your own router. It might sound complicated but it's not. Just grab any low-power x86 mini PC that has 2 network controllers, put an open-source router/firewall OS like OPNsense or pfSense on it and you're ready to go. (Check out this video for pfSense and this one for OPNsense) Protectli offers specialized devices that are designed to run OPNsense/pfSense. They also support coreboot, a free and open source BIOS implementation. You can also go with something Linux-based like OpenWrt, but I'm very happy with my BSD-based OPNsense firewall. I use a Star Labs Byte with OPNsense, a fanless mini PC that runs coreboot, designed by a UK-based, Linux-focused company called Star Labs. Before that, I used to use a Fujitsu thin client with OpenWrt, inspired by this video.
Brave apparently wants to do that, but it's not a great long term solution. The feature should actually be supported upstream, that's why Firefox is a much better option, and a better base for a fork to create a new browser.
AI is a cool feature, which makes a great excuse for proprietary corporations to spy on their users. I'd say it's one of the best opportunities for an excuse of the last few decades. Only 9/11 was a better excuse to put everyone under corporate/government surveillance.
Your average Joe Schmoe probably has no idea that different operating systems
But I don't think that these are the people buying a Framework Laptop
Yes, Microsoft is such a trustworthy company, they will definitely respect your opt out. 100% sure about that, I mean, they would never spy on their users without telling them. God damn, how foolish do you have to be to believe in this bullshit?
No one should play Valorant or any Riot game in the first place
It's not cheap, but this setup doesn't just serve as a router. It's also a dedicated hardware firewall solution, with the capacity to handle big and fast networks (I'm speaking hundrets of clients and technically it could even do 40+ Gbps over an SFP fiber-optic connection.) It also lets me monitor my network and filter connections. I use Telegraf, InfluxDB and Grafana to get a nice visual overview of my local network, as well as all the inbound and outbound connections. I can even see the location of the servers I connect to through MaxMind GeoIP in my Grafana dashboard. I also use Sensei (I think it's called Zenarmor now) for advanced filtering, and I use ClamAV with TLS interception to scan for malware. I could also run a DNS server through Unbound or Pi-Hole, but I prefer to do that on a separate device. OPNsense is a very powerful piece of software, and the StarLabs Byte is a suitable device to run it. For me it's very important to have a free BIOS firmware implementation like coreboot on a security-critical device like my firewall.