Interesting. I have always used their web app (even on mobile, i just use their pwa instead of the native app since the native app is missing obvious features), and I haven’t had any issues, but I can definitely understand the frustration if you want to use anything else. OP, keep that in mind if you’re thinking about Proton!
Just throwing in my two cents since I just went through this same ordeal: I use Proton, but be aware that you can only use a custom address if you pay for the premium plan which is not crazy cheap. I’ve been pretty happy with their premium plan so far, which includes premium features for mail, calendar, cloud drive, VPN, and password manager, but if I ever decide that I don’t want to keep paying for it, I can always transfer my custom domain to a different provider without needing to update my email.
As for the domain, I went with namecheap. I also have a pretty common name, so the good domains were taken and I had to settle for [email protected] but I think it’s still pretty easy to remember.
I know this is sacrilegious (especially as a professional software developer who works from home) but I actually think it’s too much screen space. I have a second 4k monitor that I almost never use because it always ends up with a lot of empty wasted space, so it just stays off most of the time. It really only gets used when I have something on my main monitor full screen, but even then it rarely has more than a 1080p screens’ worth of content
I primarily use DDG, but the vast majority of people I talk to (including other tech savvy people) use Google. I feel like “search” is too generic (search where?), but “search the internet” is weird. And saying “Bing it” or “Duck it” or whatever just sounds overly contrarian. But if I say “Google it”, people know exactly what I mean.
So yes, I will “Google where to buy some bandaids” by searching DDG for adhesive bandages.