[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] kbhasi:
While I am not completely in Apple or even Google's ecosystem (I see myself somewhere in the middle of a Venn diagram between those and a number of others), I may try to suggest some things.

While I personally prefer using Evernote Plus, what I can say for what you sad is a no. Samsung Notes can only sync with a Samsung account, and is only available on Galaxy phones. Your best bet would to install SideSync on both your phone and laptop, and use your phone on your laptop.

I do use Samsung Notes, but primarily for the "screen off memo" feature.

Even then, I understand why some people don't use Evernote, because they used to allow unlimited devices for free, but later increased that limit to up to 2 devices for free, which means I'm stuck paying for a Plus subscription if I actually want to use the service.

Also, go to the full editor here on XDA, if you want to use other markup features like the bullet points, instead of hyphens. I corrected that for you.

Well, I do use some of Samsung's services, but mainly because I also have a Galaxy Tab A.

(Yes, 2 out of my 3 Androids are Samsung devices, both on stock software)

Even then, if you want to get the closest to stock Android while staying on the stock Samsung Experience* software, I'll link to what I use.

This theme, (though I wish it would theme the Android "DeviceDefault" theme, but it doesn't). There's also another theme called "Pixel UI", but there are many variants of that. I don't use that or Samsung's default theme because I'm not a fan of unified icon shapes, and I'm also not a fan of ultra-white UIs.

"Navbar Apps" (to force the navigation bar to be black, instead of Samsung's white)

Nova Launcher (but I'm sure there would be something more suited to you, like "Lawnchair")

A bunch of apps from the Play Store that are published by Google themselves. Not counting the Google apps already installed as part of Google Play Services, I only have Gboard, Google Calendar, and Clock. (For other apps, I am already using non-Google apps, such as QuickPic (in addition to the stock Samsung gallery), and Pale Moon + Firefox Focus (web browsers))

*It was called TouchWiz, but with the release of 8.0 on the Galaxy S8, Samsung renamed it to "Samsung Experience". Even then, they have improved since TouchWiz Nature UX 3.5 on my Galaxy Note3 I used to have years ago.

That is only in the stock Samsung launcher, which I don't use, because it's a little hard to use, has wasted screen real estate (in my opinion), and I'm also more of a stock Android person, but by that I mean stuff like LineageOS, rather than Google Nexus and Pixel devices.

I use Nova Launcher Prime instead. Even if you use Samsung's own launcher, Bixby Home can be disabled, but can't be replaced with the Google app.

The only real downside of not using Samsung's launcher on their phones, besides Bixby Home, is the fact that the fancy Weather widget can only be used within their launcher. I haven't had time to buy this from the Play Store, but I'm sure I can just add a clone of the Samsung weather widget, and have that be linked to open the Samsung weather app, assuming the setting to add the icon to the launcher is enabled.

I don't need to answer that, because MetalHead had already done so.

Even then, I do use Bixby, but only because I don't use Google Assistant due to privacy concerns. (This is actually in contradiction to me completely ignoring S Voice on my Note3)

Bad news: You would have to root the phone, install a custom recovery, and a custom ROM based on stock Android, which gives you a number of consequences, including, but not limited to:

Voided warranty

Samsung Knox security killed off, which means you would never be able to use its features, including Samsung Pay

A number of Samsung features won't work in ROMs based on stock Android (at least on my Note3 many years ago)

Battery charging only up to 80% (based on some rumours I read)

:o

---------- Post added 23rd October 2017 at 12:02 AM ---------- Previous post was 22nd October 2017 at 11:45 PM ----------

Oh! I forgot to mention something! My customisations unfortunately can't cover up the really hard to read Samsung emoji font.

Gee, I wish I had the right contacts to start a petition against Samsung's mobile device division, asking them to give users the option to use stock Android emoji, and also to use free fonts as UI fonts (instead of being restricted to Monotype's ecosystem for the font choices).