What is the best Gnu+Linux OS to use if i have used windows my whole life and want to use it to manage online banking...

What is the best Gnu+Linux OS to use if i have used windows my whole life and want to use it to manage online banking and other things that involve money?

Ok then. Just Linux.

Arch or gentoo.

Use mint or Ubuntu. I recommend Ubuntu but the ui will be less familiar

Ubuntu

What's the difference between these?

Ubuntu with xfce or lxde as the desktop environment.

Very little. Ubuntu is based on Debian and mint is based on Ubuntu. Mint has more "windows like" ui, but has had security issues in the past. They have some dubious with package naming so you can't get a few packages on mint that you could on Ubuntu, but these are minor packages.

As I said, I recommend Ubuntu. You will get used to the ui in a day, and it's pretty comfy for a newbie.

Both are based on Debian, so there is not a whole lot of difference except the communities and company working at it.
Just go to their websites and decide which one you like most.

*dubious practices

OP here
I've decided I want Linux from scratch

You're fucked cunt

If you want something secure to use for banking, or to prevent snooping at wifi hotspots, etc, just use Tails. It's Debian based. If you want something easy that won't be too much of a shock for a Windows user, use Ubuntu Mate. I'd recommend Debian but some people seem to have a little trouble getting it installed at first, because of 'non-free' firmware issues.

You'll be sorrrreeeeee... [echo effect...]

Diffrences are noticeable.
1. Ubuntu's dev team is very big (canonical is a giany company) while mint has smaller team.
2. Mint dev team more cares about community suggestions while canonical goes its own way.
3. Ubuntu has multiple versions (like server, multimedia editor version) while mint only focuses on basic DE linux.
4. Mint goes up with mint-tools replacing some ubuntu tools also mint has x-apps, forks of some other linux basic apps.

And last thing... controversy with these distros.

1. Mint webpage got hacked some time ago and some mirrors got replaced wuth backdoored version of mint (hack didnt affected torrents).
2. Canonical puts amazon app inside ubuntu, this app collects data.

Trust me, don't do Linux From Scratch. It is much harder than Gentoo. Do something simple like Arch if you really want tons of customizability. I used to have a arch desktop and it was fantastic except X would have problems after an update. I was thinking of reinstalling Linux and multiboot with Windows. What distro would you nerds recommend? Arch again and just use windows to problem solve the Arch problems when it wont boot?

>[echo effect...]
effect...

>2. Canonical puts amazon app inside ubuntu, this app collects data.
No, they don't do this anymore. The Amazon app in Ubuntu 17.10 is just a .desktop that opens Firefox to the Amazon webpage. They no longer collect data without explicit consent from the user

>Falling for the b8.

Install either Debian or manjaro. Fuck the hassle of arch for the Sup Forums points.

Hmm... Botnet or just hacks? I'll go with botnet then.

But Manjaro has bloat. Can I install Manjaro and start with only a terminal and work from there? I might install Gentoo, but I don't know anything about useflags.

Ubuntu is kinda awful to customize after you get bored from the awful UI tough. I liked using it for a while but I had to switch.

>manjaro has bloat
Using a 20 gig hdd? Got a hell low internet cap? The bloat thing is a meme. You can install antergos base which has no de

True. Gnome is cancer. You can always use xubuntu or something though. But I think OP should just pick the easiest option and learn from there. The fact that there are so many choices is what stops a lot of people from getting into Linux.
>switching distros rather than switching de's
>what is apt install xfce4/i3/kde

Xubuntu, Kubuntu, or Debian. You can use the regular Ubuntu if you really want to but I'm not a fan of Gnome (the default desktop environment) myself. Xubuntu comes with XFCE (more lightweight) and Kubuntu comes with KDE (heavier). Just try all of the variants in a virtual machine and see which DE you like the best. You could always change the desktop environment of any distro after you install it, but these are just the ones that are officially supported and come preinstalled by them.
Debian is also simple and it's what Ubuntu is based off of, it makes it easier to customize since you can choose your DE during the installation and there's less bloat. Plus it's very stable.
For your first distro you could really choose whatever you like as long as it isn't too advanced like Arch or Gentoo, even though Arch actually makes some things a little easier with the AUR to install packages that aren't in the main repos. Even if you use an easy installing version like Antergos for Arch or Funtoo for Gentoo, the main problem with these distros for beginners is actually maintaining them after you get things set up. Especially with Arch's bleeding-edge release style, things are bound to break often and you'll have to fix them, which can be a pain if you actually have a job or things to do in your time.
And I really can't stress enough to just try a few distros in a VM so you can tell which one suits you the best before you begin to install one.

well damn I didn't realize how much I actually typed there until I posted it

I remember I started having graphical problems after I changed the wallpaper on Ubuntu, I'm still not sure if I fucked up anything or it was just that flimsy.

Get PureOS. Very secure, very safe Linux distro. Respects your privacy.

Compton fixes most of those issues, and those issues have been happening for ages.
I wouldn't call Ubuntu flimsy, I have it running on my surface 2 and it works flawlessly. Not many distros run well on the surface line

I'll try Xubuntu. Where do I start? Do i need to make a HDD partition? what's a virtual machine?

Virtual machine is a emulator that allows you to run operating systems. Great for testing before you install on real hardware.

Install Gentoo.

You can make a hdd partition during the installation process.
I would just go straight into installing it properly, as in not on a vm. Otherwise it's to easy to just go back to windows when you don't know how to do something.

What virtual machine should one get to test different distros??? Where do I get the VM?

Download virtual box and then just install the Linux distro iso onto a vm.
There are heaps of tutorials online but it's pretty intuitive.

Linux is a kernel.

Where in my post do I state that it is anything other?
>install the gnu+Linux+other tools compiled into an iso file on a vm
Fuck off

Is it safe to use the virtual machine for my online banking shit or do i still get fucked over because windows?

Anything you do on Windows is not secure. Not secure from the eyes of Microsoft or the eyes of malicious hackers.
No, vms are not secure if virtual box is running on Windows.