thagomizer_

• Linux: try installing virtualbox and messing around with it so that you know what you're getting into before having to make the jump. You dont have to go all in in the beginning. Spin up a virtual machine and play around and see if you are able to migrate any of your work to that.
• Google: once you migrate off gmail everything gets way way easier. DuckDuckGo is easily better then google for all search results other then maps and youtube
• Cars: not a car replacement, but ebikes are fun/addicting as shit and allow you to go 4x as far and fast as a regular bike without being totally sweaty at your destination. Again not a total car replacement, but it has replaced many vehicular activities and drastically cut down on me burning fossil fuels

its really not too painful to set up, and once you set it up, the only thing you'll ever have to do with it is possibly turn it off and turn it back on again by pushing a power button or unplugging and replugging the modem/router back in.

Here is what a basic setup looks like:

• Buy a DOCSIS 3.0+ capable modem. Something like an Arris Surfboard will work swimmingly. This will set you back ~$100
• Buy a wifi router that is capable of gigabit speeds. Something like TPLink Archer A7 should work for a basic set up. This is ~$50.
• Plug in an ethernet cable from the modem to the WAN port of the router. On TPLink routers this port is usually blue.
• take the coaxial cable out of the ISP provided router/modem, connect it to the modem you purchased
• take a note of the Serial Number/MAC Address/Other details on the sticker on your modem.
• take a note of the WiFi SSID and password on the sticker of the router. this will be your new wifi info to connect to
• make sure everything is plugged into power and on
• connect to the wifi with a laptop or desktop or plug an ethernet cable into one of the other ports of the router. the internet will NOT work at this point. This is expected.
• call the cable company and tell them that you have your own modem and that you want them to activate it. They'll probably ask you for some of the details on the bottom of the modem. Ensure that they get all of this info correct or it wont work
• once the cable company activates the modem, they may tell you that it will take 30 minutes to activate. Wait the time and then test the internet connection on your device. The internet should theoretically work at this point

If you run into issues one thing you can do to troubleshoot is take the ethernet cable that is coming from the modem to the router and unplug the router side and plug it straight into your laptop or desktop(disclaimer its not safe to browse the internet normally like this, just go straight to google and do a search for banana, no need to click on anything else, if it works it works, if it doesnt then still no internet). If the internet didn't work before on wifi or ethernet coming out of the router and it works now, then you know the modem is working and that the router is potentially having problems.

Although it might be a slight pain to set up once, if you are renting the modem for $10/month then dealing with this hassle once will be an investment that will pay itself off in a bit over a year. This is approximately 1 full afternoons worth of work for a novice if I was to guess. Feel free to reply back to this thread later if you get stuck