Just try few of these from live usb and pick what you like.

You can use Ventoy and just drag all your ISO images to it but creating few USBs is easiest option for beginners.

There is nothing bad about Debian/Debian based distros and I think that it is great option I started on Mint, tryed Manjaro and get back to Mint.

If you want it only for SMS and calls buy some dumb brick. But if you need more things from it I can’t help you I am dissatisfied with most phones but now I have second hand FP 3 and it is enough for me.

If you want it only for testing, breaking things… Buy some POS office PC, lot of companies is always getting rid of these.

I am not self hosting, but I will probably buy few of these from my work and try it (at least it’s my plan).

Can I volunteer my matches. You know patch for comment section.

Can confirm, I replaced bunch of useless cloud crap on my mum’s phone with simple tools and she likes it. I use them too.

For anyone interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrGfahzt-4Q

This gets little in depth on this issues.