I can’t disagree with mint being a good distribution, because it is.

I personally think for someone just starting out in Linux that an immutable distribution like fedora silverblue (gnome) or kinoite (kde) is the safest route to take. They’re difficult to break. I personally use bazzite on my framework laptop and it’s basically hassle free. Not for everyone, but they work well.

I’ve been using proton for a couple years now. I trust and like the services they provide. Plus they regularly perform third party audits and make the results public. https://protonvpn.com/blog/no-logs-audit

Cleaner in the sense you don’t have the whetstones forming a slurry on top while sharpening as cheap stones tend to do. A slightly damp paper towel will clean off any metal shavings if the diamond stone is used dry. I don’t think this is a problem with high quality whetstones.

I have two DMT diamond stones in coarse and fine. They both do the trick and can be run wet or dry. I also have a set of cheap Chinese “whetstones” from Amazon. Gotta say that both sets are able to sharpen my knives. The diamond stones I find way easier to use and a lot cleaner.

The plane is 7 years old. This isn’t a Boeing issue, this is a Southwest maintenance issue. Engine cowlings are regularly removed for maintenance. If a latch or latches aren’t properly secured or suffer from excessive wear then this is the outcome. I get the disdain for Boeing, but it should be based on issues of their negligence, not the negligence of their customers.