flatbield

Eject is not just for CDs. You still have to eject any hot mount physical media. Sadly the eject command only works in some cases. I do not think it works for hot mount SATA dives for example.

Twit network that produces Security now if they would allow annual payment. I hate monthly payments.

Fastmail was never a recommended privacy specific provider if that is the big concern. Does not mean they do not have value.

Personally livng in the US I prefer a US provider. Geopolitics is one driver. Also US gov is not allowed to spy on their own citizens. If on the other hand they cross the border things are different. Not really many good US choices. EU has a lot of good choices.

Server no. But hosted domain email is probably what I will do in the next year. Probably at Fastmail or at Namecheap. I have the domain just waiting.

In a way, I already have a mail server on my VPS, just never installed IMAP. Not what I want for every day though.

For privacy specifically take a look at https://www.privacyguides.org/en/email/ .

For just a paid provider where you are the customer not the product, consider FastMail or a hosting offering such as NameCheap. By hosting I mean the one that is part of their hosting plans not their email specific offering though that is interesting also but quite expensive.