Technology

Install LineageOS on your phone, dont flash GApps. Install F-Droid as your appstore and from there install the Aurora Store for play store apps. It's an app store that pulls apps directly from google play without have to sign in with a google account. Its really easy to do.

In addition to the OS options people have already suggested, I will add that if you are stuck on android, you can at least install f-droid as an alternative to the google play store. It has a nice selection of foss apps that can at least help you in part of the journey out of the google ecosystem. I personally love the NewPipe app as an alternative front end for watching stuff on YouTube.

I will add a warning that installing a different OS on your phone in some cases can cause problems between the phone and the cell service provider. So research thoroughly for your specific case before doing that.

The support for a de-googled OS will be determined by your Samsung phone model, start there. You may want to eBay a used phone to experiment with.

Lineage OS supports these models: https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/

e/OS supports these models: https://doc.e.foundation/devices

Graphene OS supports these models: https://grapheneos.org/faq#supported-devices <-Pixel only

For starters, make sure that all the apps you need can work without Google services. Especially banking, ID, and such

I don't know what type of phone you have specifically, but if it's on this list, you can install LineageOS, which is an open-source android-based platform that's not tied to Google. https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#samsung

If you haven't already switched most/all of your apps to open-source or non-google play versions, you'll need to start looking out for that. I would suggest using the F-Droid store to find apps. Depending on how hardcore you want to go, you can also look up the github/codeberg address of the various apps you find and use the Obtanium app to download them directly from the repo. I think it's totally fine to use F-Droid to find your options, though.

Some suggestions: There's a series of apps called Fossify that replace most of the stock apps on the phone, everything from the clock to sms to phone. They even have a file manager and launcher if you're interested in that. I use the open-source Lawnchair launcher with the Delta icon pack, Phocid for music, AntennaPod for podcasts, Myne for ebooks, Fennec is my browser, and a mixture of Citra and Lemuroid for games.

Iirc, Mint uses Cinnamon as a desktop environment, but if you ever find yourself using KDE, there's an app called KDE Connect that allows you to transfer files from your computer to your phone and back (along with other things) over a network connection.

Good luck! I hope you find this path as rewarding as I have. It feels really good to get away from Google.

I have an older phone (Motorola 5G Ace) and a new Lenovo tablet that I run /e/ OS on. Both work great but there is a bit of a learning curve if your not familiar with boot loader unlocking. And don't expect every app to work. What ever OS you go with check that is uses microG, that emulates Google services locally without using Google. And you need to use an anonymous app store like Aurora and FDroid. Also you should be aware that Google is playing hardball trying to kill off 3rd party app stores and developers with their "Certified developer" program that starts in September (I think). /e/ OS offers cloud accounts for backup and data sync but you can self host as well (I run everything to a TrueNas with Nextcloud) IMHO self hosting is the better option, why take the data from google and give it to someone else.